


Earl,y Seiti..ek4)-:nt and Growth 
' OF Western Iowa 




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REMINISCENCES 
BY REV. JOHN TODD 





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EARLY SETTLEMENT AND 
GROWTH OF WESTERN IOWA 

OR 

REMINISCENCES 



BY 

REV. JOHN TODD 

OF TABOR, IOWA 



DES MOINES 
THE HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT OF IOWA 

1906 



nCPUBLICAN PRINTING CO- 
CEDAR RAPIDS. IOWA 






UBRARYotCON6RESS 
OweCoOy R»c«lyH 

MAY 2a 1906 

^ Coiiyngni £ntr» - 



COPYRIGHT, 1906 



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PREFACE 

THE writer of the following pages was enjoy- 
ing the well-earned leisure of his closing 
years, when some who had heard by the fire- 
side and in social gathering his vivid recollections 
of early days, suggested that he should put his 
reminiscences into more permanent form. 

Consequently the material herewith presented 
appeared in "The Tabor Beacon," the weekly 
paper of his home town, in 1891. This naturally 
led to verification, corrections and additions, which 
added much to the value of the work. The re- 
vision was carefully made by my father and the 
following is the result. He corresponded with 
some publishing houses to learn the cost of publi- 
cation, but hesitated, partly from characteristic 
modesty, I believe, to undertake the work. 

After his death in 1894, his children thought to 
publish the work with a sketch of his life, but 
hitherto a favorable opportunity has not presented 
itself. 

Very little change has been made in the manu- 
script since it left the hands of the author. Some 
of the original chapters have been combined so 
that the whole number has been considerably re- 
duced. The order has not been changed and only 
a few repetitions have been omitted. 



6 Reminiscences 

These Reminiscences derive their special value 
from several facts. They are the experiences and 
observations of one, who, by his varied occupation 
of pioneer, teacher and pastor, was brought into in- 
timate relations with many in all walks of life, and 
one who uniformly gained their respect and con- 
fidence. By his education and wide reading he 
added to his own personal experiences and was 
enabled to correctly discriminate and value the 
facts coming to his knowledge from others. His 
acquaintance extended over forty years and spread 
over all of western Iowa, and parts of adjacent 
states. These years were years of rapid growth in 
a naturally rich country, and glimpses of the extent 
of improvement come to us very forcibly as we read 
some of the early incidents and contrast them with 
present conditions. 

Moreover, this development was at an event- 
ful period of our nation, the time of the Anti- 
Slavery Struggle, including " the Kansas troubles " 
and the Civil War. No other town outside of 
Kansas had more to do with the " Free-state 
struggle " than did Tabor, Iowa. Its location also 
made it a prominent station on the " Underground 
Railroad," and consequently a special object of 
suspicion and hatred to all pro-slavery men in Mis- 
souri and the vicinity. Incidents connected with 
these subjects will doubtless wake the widest in- 
terest. 



Preface 7 

The term " Reminiscences " in our title is used 
advisedly. THey are strictly records of events 
recalled with rarely any reflections thereon. 

The frequency of personal names which natur- 
ally grew out of its first publication in a local paper, 
may seem to some undesirable, but to others this 
very fact will present an added charm. It will be 
a satisfaction to know that such a relative or friend 
participated in such or such an incident, which 
now possesses historic value. 

The mythical tendency is strong in the early 
stages of a country as well as in primitive con- 
ditions of society. Certain incidents and charac- 
ters become distorted by imperfections of memory 
and of statement, till both the good and the bad 
are greatly exaggerated. He, therefore, who gives 
a clear and " unvarnished tale " renders a sub- 
stantial contribution to history and to truth, which 
is of value to everyone. 

J. E. T. 

Vermilion, S. D., April 27, 1905 



CONTENTS 

Preface ... 5 

Biographical Sketch 13 

Synopsis of Rev. Todd's Life 45 

I. — Preliminaries 51 

II.— Finding a location in a new country. Ride on the 

river — St. Louis to Percival — A location found. . . 54 

III. — Return to Ohio. A thousand miles on horseback — 

A Sabbath at Pisgah — Journey resumed .... 67 

IV. — Interim and removal to Iowa. Visit to the East — 

Journey to Iowa 80 

v.— Getting into the work. Preparing the home — The 
school-house — The river flood — Ague — Moving to 
higher ground — Early church services 85 

VI. — Incidents by the way. The first grave — Worth half 
a dollar — Old Queen — New accessions — Incidents 
of 1854— Incidents of '55-6 100 

VII. — The Kansas struggle. Causes of the strife — Atroci- 
ties — Gen. Jim Lane — Freestate men — Death of 
Leang Hitchcock — Battle of Hickory Point — Law- 
rence attacked — Col. Eldridge's party 108 

VIII. — The opening of the Under-ground Railroad. The 
first passengers through Tabor — Nuckoll's slaves 
from Nebraska City 134 

IX, — Later business of the U. G. R. R. Fugitives from 
Indian Territory — The rescue — Another case — 
Kidnapped and rescued 145 

X. — John Brown's Preparations. Col. Forbes — Stay in 
Iowa — Invasion of Missouri — Thanks to Almighty 
God — Conference with Taborites — His last visit to 
Tabor 154 

XL — Seeking the stray sheep. Magnolia — Olmstead — 
Dennison — Ida Grove— Smithland — Sioux City — 
Return through Nebraska — Second trip 162 

XII. — Amity or College Springs. Offshoot of Knox Col- 
lege—Rev. A. V. House— Results 169 

XII I. — Evangelistic and temperance work. Meetings at 
Glenwood — Magnolia — Percival — Tabor — Whiskey 
and temperance 174 

XIV. — Appendix.— Indians in Iowa. In Fremont county 
— General sketch — Dakotas — Winnebagoes — lowas 
— Illinois — Incidents in Pennsylvania — Sacs and 
Foxes — Pottowattamies— Wabonsa and his grave. 179 

Index 199 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF REV. 
JOHN TODD, OF TABOR, IOWA, 

By His Eldest Son, Prof. J. E. Todd 

Ancestry and Early Life 

John Todd, the second son and fifth child of 
Capt. James Todd and Sally Ainsworth Todd, 
was born November lo, 1818, in West Hanover, 
Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. 

His father, named James, was son of James the 
son of James, who came from the north of Ireland 
and founded the family on the then frontier of 
Pennsylvania, which later went west to Ohio and 
Illinois. His father, Hugh, soon joined him, and 
also a brother who, becoming dissatisfied, moved 
on to Kentucky, and is supposed to be the ancestor 
of the numerous family of that State and Missouri. 

The race was frugal, thrifty, and religious. The 
Presbyterian stone church in which the family wor- 
shiped was standing in 1870, though it had been 
deserted for several years and was much dilapi- 
dated. 

Every generation has been well represented in 
the ministry of the Presbyterian and Congrega- 
tional churches. 

His father, James Todd, was universally re- 



14 Reminiscences 

spected, was captain of a company of infantry in 
the defense of Baltimore in 1814. Though of 
moderate education he had a sincere love for 
knowledge and withal a readiness to welcome new 
ideas — in short, was ready to render sympathetic 
assistance to all reasonable reforms. He was one 
of the first to banish whiskey from the harvest 
field, and to espouse the anti-slavery cause. 
Though a staunch supporter of the Presbyterian 
church he early recognized the force of the New 
School views. He, therefore, became interested 
in the principles of the colony and college just start- 
ing at Oberlin, Ohio. In September, 1835, he 
sent his son John there, who pursued his studies 
eagerly, receiving the degree of A. B. in 1841, and 
finishing the theological course in 1844. Most 
of the time he had the companionship of his 
younger brother, David, who was two years be- 
hind him. He was there in the early, exciting days 
of frontier life, self support, the beginning of co- 
education, anti-slavery agitation, and of revolts 
against hyper-Calvinism. Nothing could have pro- 
moted more the cultivation of clear, independent 
thinking, combined with most unselfish and cour- 
ageous devotion to truth and to liberty, both civil 
and religious. In a paper which he was invited to 
read at the Jubilee of Oberlin in 1883, on "The 
Early Home Missionary," he testifies : " With- 
out at all disparaging the wholesome influence of 



Rev. John Todd 15 

godly parents, I may truly say that whatever of 
aid I have been able to render In the cause of the 
Master, I owe, under God, to Oberlin." 

From a journal which he kept in 1892-94 it 
appears how deeply he drank of the Oberhn spirit 
of those days, and how consecrated was the heart 
with which he taught and preached during vaca- 
tions at North Amherst and New Baltimore in 
those years. 

After graduating from theology he became pas- 
tor of the Congregational church at Clarksfield, 
Ohio, a small country town in an adjoining county. 
He was ordained August 15, 1844, and Septem- 
ber loth following he was wedded to one whose 
affections he had won in college days, belonging to 
the class of '43, Miss Martha Atkins, A. B., ninth 
daughter of Judge 0. F. Atkins, of Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Endowed with excellent physique, a thorough 
education, a beautiful voice, a devoted spirit, fully 
sympathizing in the convictions and unselfish aims 
of her husband, she should be credited with a full 
share of his successes. The hardships of pioneer 
life, the sacrifices for church and college, the bur- 
dens of a family of seven children, six attaining 
maturity, most of whom were given a college edu- 
cation, the peculiar burdens of a pastor's wife, 
which she patiently and bravely bore, need only 
to be mentioned to indicate how great and grand 



1 6 Reminiscences 

was the work she wrought in her forty-four years 
of married life. Afflicted with epilepsy for several 
years before her death, she fell asleep July 20, 
1888. 

Near Oberlin lived a young farmer, George B. 
Gaston, who with true missionary spirit had sought 
and obtained a commission under the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
among the Pawnee Indians in what is now Nance 
county, Nebraska. Four years' work among them 
acquainted him with the wonderful natural re- 
sources of the Middle West, and with a Christian 
statesman's prophetic vision he saw something of 
the future possibilities of the region. Forced by 
his wife's ill health to return home to Ohio, he 
became more acquainted with the early history of 
Oberlin, and drinking deeply of the consecrated 
spirit of its early founders, he conceived the plan 
of planting a similar colony and college on virgin 
land in the Missouri Valley. 

Meanwhile, his sister Elvira and her husband, 
Mr. Lester W. Piatt, who had been with him 
among the Pawnees, had located on the broad, fer- 
tile plain of the Missouri River near where the 
little town of Percival, Iowa, now stands. I know 
not the links in the chain of events which led 
Deacon George B. Gaston to choose and persuade 
Rev. John Todd to join him in his enterprise as 
pastor and educated leader of the colony. But 



Rev. John Todd 17 

I do know that their mutual admiration and friend- 
ship were strong and unbroken to the end. This 
strong bond was born of their being largely com- 
plements of one another in temperament and edu- 
cation, and was nourished by their common inter- 
est in Christian education and the kingdom of 
God. 

Pioneer Work 

Of the long journey to Iowa in 1848 with Dea- 
con Hall, the choice of location and the return 
to Ohio, the moving to Iowa, the difficulties of the 
first location, the founding of Tabor, Iowa, with 
many other events for many years, little need be 
said here. They are fully treated in the Reminis- 
cences. 

It will be more in place briefly to speak of them, 
if at all, from a more external and later point of 
view, and for this quotations have been quite freely 
taken from remarks made by different friends who 
spoke at the memorial exercises attending his 
funeral. 

The choice of the location near Percival was 
most natural. To those inexperienced in the great 
differences between different years in the interior, 
and much impressed by the nearness of the " Great 
American Desert " of those days, what could have 
been more wise than to choose the fertile bottom 
lands by the great Missouri, which they thought 



1 8 Reminiscences 

would ever be their main channel of communica- 
tion with the rest of the world? The floods of 
the following seasons were a damper on their en- 
thusiasm In more ways than one. 

The choice of Tabor, though relieving their im- 
mediate need, withdrew the colony from lines of 
traffic and made the place more difficult of access. 
This, in time, became a great drawback to the 
purpose of the colony, though it may have at first 
promoted it. 

As a pioneer he was naturally well equipped. 
His first experience was at Oberlin. The training 
there stimulated and perfected frugality, courage, 
endurance, and resourcefulness. The simple life 
was taught as a Christian duty, and the artificial 
and conventional, though not scorned, were put in 
the back-ground. Hardship and privation were 
expected, and were not avoided, but were rather 
rejoiced in as adding to the zest of life. He was 
a pioneer of pioneers, coming earlier than most. 
The nearest store was twenty miles away, and the 
nearest grist mill further. Hulled corn was long 
the main diet. Wheat bread was for months a 
rare article. Houses were sometimes built without 
shingles, boards, or nails. 

After the home at Tabor was temporarily broken 
by the death of his wife, he again spent a few 
months on a homestead with his unmarried daugh- 
ter, near Drakola, Kingsbury county, South 



Rev. John Todd 19 

Dakota, in the summer of 1889. As an example 
of his venturesomeness, ingenuity, and persever- 
ance, he dug and walled a well about 12 feet deep 
without help. 

Trained upon a farm in early life and paid but 
meagerly by his parishioners at first, like Paul 
he labored with his own hands for his support. 
He cultivated for many years several acres of 
ground, kept cattle and horses, kept a timber lot 
from which he got his own fuel. His faithful part- 
ner shared with him in these labors and cares. 
Early rising was a rule of the family. Habits of 
ease or indolence were not permitted to grow. 
Economy, industry, and frugality were early in- 
stilled in all the children. 

His Ministry 

As a preacher he was successful above many. 
This is attested by his having in his thirty-eight 
years of active service but two charges, — first at 
Clarksfield, six years, which place he left regretted 
by all, to go with the new colony to Iowa. The 
Civil Bend or Gaston church virtually followed 
their pastor to Tabor, where he was the active 
pastor for more than thirty years. His brief 
work as a chaplain was with some of his Tabor 
men, and was only very temporary. His preach- 
ing was like that of many others trained under 
President Finney. It was conversational rather 



20 Reminiscences 

than oratorical, though it not infrequently rose to 
such heights of earnestness as to become truly 
eloquent. His vocabulary was large, but the words 
were mainly simple and well-chosen, not ornate. 
His style was logical rather than rhetorical, was 
argumentative rather than positive, concrete rather 
than abstract. His appeal was to the reason and 
intelligent conviction rather than to preference or 
to feeling. Even in deep solemnity, over-excite- 
ment and rash decision were carefully guarded 
against, as also the allowing of noble purposes 
to fade away in mere sentiment. Mere enthusi- 
asm and extravagant statements were so lacking 
in his own language and manner that some demon- 
strative and over-sanguine people overlooked the 
constant fire of zealous purpose, which was an 
unfailing inspiration to him. Nor was he without 
that elevation of feeling which enabled him to 
rise equal to a special occasion. Impassioned lan- 
guage when used by him meant more than from 
many. His voice was not strong nor rich, but was 
usually clear and agreeably modulated. At one 
time in the later 6o's it failed so that he rested for 
about a year. 

His custom at first was to speak from a brief, 
or skeleton, the introduction being somewhat care- 
fully written out. He later became convinced that 
speaking extempore was not the best way for him, 
and so adopted the plan of writing out his dis- 



Rev. John Todd 21 

courses fully and reading them. I think he was 
influenced to do this by the desire to close the 
morning service promptly for the Sunday school 
which followed. He could cover his subject in 
shorter time and more effectively by writing in full. 
He left scores of " skeletons " each upon one- 
fourth of a sheet of letter paper folded once. The 
written sermons are usually on packet size, written 
on both sides of the leaf, and neatly bound. All 
are written in a clear, distinct hand almost as plain 
as printing. On each is written the places and 
dates at which it was preached. 

As a pastor he was faithful. He called regu- 
larly and impartially, except to be more with those 
who needed encouragement. He did not overlook 
the young and the children; they were taken into 
the church early. Yet he never baptized infants. 
Those who wished to have their children baptized 
he provided for by engaging others to do it. 

Rev. G. G. Rice, long the pastor at Council 
Bluffs, thus spoke of him : 

" His presence in the family, his presence in 
the sick room was always felt to be a benediction, 
and everywhere that he was known families loved 
to have him come, felt it a privilege, and our own 
children looked for his coming as they did for a 
near relative. There was a familiarity; he won 
their hearts." 

Dr. R. R. Hanley, former pastor of the Tabor 



22 Reminiscences 

Baptist church, said: " So far as Father Todd's 
ministry was concerned, I learned to regard espe- 
cially the just judgment that he exercised, the wise 
and politic course that he took in the conduct of 
the church of which he was pastor, so that mingling 
many characters from different nationalities he was 
able to mold and influence them, to make them 
united in heart and purpose, and to work in the up- 
building of the institution of education as well as 
in the upbuilding of the church." 

Rev. J. K. Nutting, of Glenwood, testified of 
his influence among his brother ministers in asso- 
ciation meetings : " I remember Brother Todd as 
being a helpful member everywhere, the wise coun- 
sellor, the trusted leader, yet as having such re- 
markable simplicity of character and humility that 
he never seemed to be putting himself at the head 
at all. There are some persons that are born to 
lead and will draw you by their art, i. e., they mean 
to lead, and there are others who are so quiet about 
their leadership, that you hardly think of them as 
being leaders until you look back and see so many 
things suggested by them, and so they do not at- 
tract the attention they deserve as leaders until the 
time is past, and we look back upon their worlc. 
It was something so with Brother Todd. His was 
the headship of Christian work. I think that is 
exactly delineated in the words of the Saviour, 



Rev. John Todd 2^ 

' He that is greatest among you shall be servant 
of all.' 

" I have several times been with him on councils, 
and I never knew Brother Todd to give an unwise 
sentiment or advice, never knew him to be for- 
ward for Congregationalism rather than for Chris- 
tianity." 

Some considered him too severe in rebuking evil, 
but most were convinced, I think, that he did it 
from a sense of duty and with the kindest of inten- 
tions. He considered himself an unfaithful friend 
if he did not do it. If he became convinced that 
he had gone too far, he was very ready to acknowl- 
edge it. 

He preached a consistent and practical religion. 
Being sincere, he believed in practicing what he 
preached, and expected all others to do the same, 
so far as they were convinced. 

Some perhaps thought him conservative because 
of his conscientiousness, but he was one who was 
ready to welcome any new measure which prom- 
ised better things. 

He adapted himself to new customs more easily 
than many, because he had perfect self-control, 
and when he was once convinced that anything 
was right and best he promptly and persistently 
adopted it heartily. 



24 Reminiscences 

His Anti-Slavery Work 

His opposition to slavery, which had been 
planted deep in his heart, not only manifested 
itself in anti-slavery speech and discussion in col- 
lege days and in his early ministry, but led him 
to sustain a monthly prayer meeting which, from 
its being observed by many Oberlin men, was 
called the Concert of Prayer for the Enslaved. It 
was sustained regularly at Tabor till slavery was 
abolished in 1863. John Brown sometimes was 
present and once expressed his conviction that he 
had never yet remembered "those in bonds as 
bound with them." 

The Reminiscences reveal his interest in and 
personal assistance to the " Underground Rail- 
road." 

We find him organizing a county anti-slavery 
society in his first field at Clarksfield. So also in 
Fremont county, Iowa, a convention was called on 
the subject in 1854. 

His interest in the Kansas struggle is manifest 
in his Reminiscences. That was a time when Tabor 
saw and heard more of war, perhaps, than during 
the Civil War. At any rate, such events then 
seemed greater from their freshness, and more was 
seen of the leading men in the contest. 

At one time Tabor citizens were on the point of 
helping a band of emigrants to make their way 



Rev. John Todd 25 

into the territory of Kansas in spite of " Border 
Ruffian " opposition. The pastor got spurs, new 
saddle, girths, and other equipment, ready to do 
his part, but the necessity passed away. 

His fVar Record 

Though earnestly and eloquently advocating the 
support of the government in the Civil War, he 
did not feel called to take part personally till in 
1864, in the supreme effort to bring the war to 
a close, when the " Hundred Days Men " were 
called out. He was then first selected by the 29th 
Iowa Infantry as chaplain, but another had a pref- 
erence with some of the leading officers, so he 
was later commissioned chaplain of the 46th Iowa 
Infantry, and served in western Tennessee. 

One who was a member of the regiment and 
from Tabor testified: " We know that his life in 
the army was not like the life in the army. It was 
just as pure in the camp as it was in his own home. 
His words were just as earnest, just as clean when 
he talked to the soldiers around the camp fire as 
when he spoke from the sacred desk here in Tabor. 
He knew the men. 

" Father Todd not only preached every Sunday, 
but we had a prayer meeting on Wednesday even- 
ing, too. There was one of those little earthworks 
where we used to go and hold prayer meeting. 
Father Todd was there always. * * * Qj^g 



26 Reminiscences 

of the most earnest prayers I ever heard from 
mortal lips I heard from him. It was beside the 
cot of a poor, ignorant colored man, who had just 
been taken from slavery, and the musket put in 
his hands, and who was mortally wounded. He 
was one chaplain who was earnest, constant in sea- 
son and out of season, doing his duty no matter 
where it was." 

His Missionary Work 

Besides being a pastor he was much of the time 
a missionary. We need not repeat the details given 
in the Reminiscences. It should, however, be said 
that he states in his address at the Oberlin Jubilee 
in 1883 that he never held a commission under 
the American Home Missionary Society. Oberlin 
men were not acceptable to that Society because of 
a prejudice against Oberlin ideas and customs on 
one side and impatience with pro-slavery conserva- 
tism on the other. He received, however, small 
sums from the American Missionary Association, 
which was organized for work among the negroes, 
but for a time encroached on the work of both the 
Home and Foreign Missionary Societies for rea- 
sons just mentioned. This was for three or four 
years at the beginning of the colony. He covered 
in a monthly circuit an area about 100 by 40 miles, 
and services were held at eight or ten places. 

It is a notable fact that this was done before 



Rev. John Todd T] 

the Methodists, who are deservedly famous for 
being at the forefront in religious work, had 
sent any one into that region. 

The region at that time was filled with Mor- 
mons, lately driven out from Illinois, who were 
lingering about Kanesville (Council Bluffs) before 
going on to Salt Lake. After their departure — 
though several settlements remained — emigrants 
largely from the South filled the region. These 
were for slavery, and familiar with liquor. It was 
with these unfriendly classes that he had much to 
do. Yet in many places his labors were blessed 
with conversions and the starting of vigorous 
churches. 

His charitable and catholic spirit enabled him 
frequently to join readily with the Methodists 
when they came and with other denominations in 
conducting revival services, usually to the mutual 
satisfaction of all. Later, it will be noticed from 
his Reminiscences, he was asked by eastern churches 
to take a more extended religious exploring tour, 
which greatly advanced the cause of rehgion by 
bringing out many new settlers who had not before 
committed themselves, and by their being brought 
into communication with one another, and re-estab- 
lished as active Christians. 

Not only were such active efforts engaged in, 
but an interest in missions, foreign and home, was 
sustained in the Tabor church, which has always 



28 Reminiscences 

given liberally. Several have gone from the 
church into the foreign field, and many into home 
missionary work. 

His JVork for Temperance 

Closely connected with missionary work was 
the temperance work. When the Tabor colony 
first came to the region, merchants kept a barrel 
of whiskey in their back room with the head 
knocked out and a dipper always at hand for cus- 
tomers, and few were those who refused to drink. 
A county temperance society was organized and 
held regular quarterly meetings for about twenty 
years. Free whiskey soon disappeared, and the 
county voted for the Prohibition Amendment by 
several hundred majority. 

His last effort was for temperance; to stay, by 
petition if possible, the passage of the Mulct law. 

His Work for Tabor College 

His main work, aside from that of pastor, was 
for Tabor College. President Brooks, who was 
president for nearly thirty years, writes: " When 
Rev. John Todd left his first church in Clarksfield, 
Ohio, at the sohcitation of his friend, Deacon 
George B. Gaston, it was with no hope of worldly 
gain. He left a united church and an assured 
salary to go to a new and sparsely settled country. 
No church awaited his coming, no society com- 



Rev. John Todd 29 

missioned him to go. Deacon Gaston alone com- 
missioned him, inviting him to join the Httle com- 
pany who had set their faces toward western 
Iowa. He said: ' Come with us and while I live 
you shall live.' Beginnings were made in faith 
and hope though the present many times did not 
seem bright. 

" Mr. Todd was one of the incorporators, in 
1857, of Tabor Literary Institute, the Academy 
which preceded Tabor College. He was chairman 
of its Board of Trustees, and also the first chairman 
of the Board of Trustees of Tabor College. He 
was one of the Trustees of the College from its in- 
corporation in 1866 until his death. He was one of 
the most liberal givers to the College : he gave 
not only money but time and thought; he gave 
himself to promote its interests. At the opening 
of the College Mr. Todd, from a salary of $800 
pledged $1,000, which he paid with interest ; ^hen 
gave another $1,000, and afterward gave in 
smaller sums. Besides these gifts in money he 
taught for three years without pecuniary compen- 
sation, and gave time without limit in arranging 
courses of study and in doing every kind of neces- 
sary work, 

'* In educating his family, three of whom gradu- 
ated from Tabor College, he never availed himself 
of the free tuition given to the children of min- 
isters in active service but said he preferred to 



3'0 Reminiscences 

pay in full. He never failed when in town to be 
present at the opening of a new term. At differ- 
ent times he served as Secretary, Treasurer, Li- 
brarian, and Auditor, and always with the same 
faithfulness and interest in the success of the insti- 
tution which he came to the West to help estab- 
lish. He was not a born leader nor one with un- 
bounded enthusiasm, but he was one who had the 
genius for doing well a large amount of work. He 
always worked with his associates without friction 
unless he thought some principle of right was vio- 
lated. In his death one of the earliest and best 
friends of the College passed away." 

Personal Characteristics 

His description, according to his enlistment 
paper, was " 5 ft., 6 inches high, light complexion, 
blue eyes, grey hair, age 45." 

He was of slender build and light weight, but 
very active. His habitual quick step was often a 
subject of remark and means of recognition. 

A young professor in the college relates: " As 
I was taking my trimks over to the house where 
I was to live, having been in town only a few hours, 
as I climbed in, there was Father Todd standing 
in the wagon, and we rode slowly along and I be- 
gan to get acquainted with that man I have learned 
to love so well since. And as the wagon drew 
up to stop just a moment before his home, without 



Rev. John Todd 3'l 

the least hesitation, he lightly leaped over the 
wheel to the ground, standing erect as he was, leav- 
ing me — well, somewhat scandalized that a man 
over whose head so many years had passed should 
have so young a body, but I have learned since that 
his soul was just as young as his body." 

In early life he often wore a scowl, which was 
more apparent on his unshaven face; in middle 
life the scowl was less marked; he wore a short 
beard with shaved upper lip; but in later years, 
having a full, long beard, he presented a benignant 
and venerable appearance admired by all. 

His leading characteristics have perhaps been 
sufficiently illustrated already, but it may be well 
here to take a parting glance at them. 

The fundamental factor in his life was unfalter- 
ing trust in God. From this sprang his conse- 
cration for a noble cause, his perseverance amid 
discouragements, and his calmness and unflinching 
courage. Linked with this was his faithfulness to 
duty. The voice of conscience was to him the call 
of God, to be followed unhesitatingly. As one 
said who knew him well (Rev. J. W. Cowan, his 
successor) : " If he thought that a thing was right 
for him to do, you could count upon his doing that 
thing just as surely as you can count on the sun 
rising tomorrow morning. If he thought a certain 
thing should be said from the pulpit it would be 
absolutely sure to be said the next Sunday morn- 



3'2 Reminiscences 

ing. It was not because he did not care for the 
good opinion of his fellow men. It was not be- 
cause he did not like to have his neighbors think 
well of him." 

He possessed a logical mind. His appeal was 
constantly to reason, and if he was convinced of 
wrong reasoning he was not slow to acknowledge 
an error. If in doubt he was quite sure to err on 
the side of self-denial rather than on the side 
of self-indulgence. 

Closely akin to this was a love of truth, and 
hence that qualifying of strong statements which 
"to some may have seemed lack of confidence or of 
enthusiasm. It was because he saw the tiaith more 
clearly than some. 

Though habitually sober, another trait was love 
of sport. He had times of unbending; in fact, 
he considered duty led in this direction not infre- 
quently. He played with children. He keenly 
enjoyed a harmless joke. He enjoyed such extrava- 
ganzas as Baron Munchausen, and still more, fun 
with a point, like that of Mark Twain or Burdette, 
but he quickly sobered if sport was made of things 
sacred or serious. 

He was not at home in any labored display, and 
while attending social functions from a sense 
of duty, recognizing their necessity and bearing 
himself well in them, he was not there for pleasure. 

He was a lover of nature and enjoyed giving 



Rev. John Todd 33 

instruction, as he did for a time, in the Natural 
Sciences. 

An important factor in his success was his de- 
light in neatness and method. He was scribe of 
the Council Bluffs Association for many years, and 
he was presented with a gold pen in recognition of 
his marked success in that office. His manuscripts 
were clear as lithographs. He kept careful record 
of all marriages, baptisms, and other notable events 
of his parish, and yet method or accuracy simply 
for its own sake he thought of little value. Red 
tape was irksome. He enjoyed drawing diagrams 
and maps. He enjoyed a nicely labeled and sys- 
tematically arranged cabinet. Closely akin to this 
accuracy were his habits of promptness, neatness of 
dress, and also of keeping things in place. A com- 
mon injunction to his children was: "Be sure 
to put it back in place." " Leave it where you 
found it." 

Another trait was his impartiality. He believed 
in doing his part and expected every one else to do 
his. Hence he would treat all equally and fairly. 
He was also slow to believe a man wilfully de- 
ficient, and when he had proved to be so, he felt 
bound to treat him as he deserved. He had no 
sympathy with a clannish or aristocratic spirit. He 
was above holding a position or carrying a point 
by pretense or intrigue, and was slow to believe it 

of others. 
3 



34 Reminiscences 

Yet he was not blind to the faults of others 
and his caution saved him from many a deception. 
He was always ready to give another the benefit 
of a doubt, and to suffer wrong rather than to 
do a wrong. His loyal and charitable spirit was 
beautifully illustrated in his welcome to Rev. J. W. 
Cowan, his successor in the pulpit which he had 
filled for thirty years, and which he had resigned 
on reaching his 64th year. This is the Rev. 
Cowan's tribute: "I would that I had time to 
speak of what he has been to me individually; 
of how that gentle, modest, unassuming spirit 
has shown itself so constantly. Almost a 
dozen years ago I came to this place to take 
out of his hands that work on which he had 
lavished the thirty best years of his Hfe, into 
which he poured his heart's blood through three 
toiling decades. It was dearer to him, I 
doubt not, than any other earthly interest. What 
wonder would it have been if there had been 
something of jealous watchfulness, something of 
ever wakeful criticism in the attitude of his spirit 
as he came to turn that prized work over to the 
hand of a stranger who, perhaps, might mar 
wonder would it have been if there had been 
built at so great sacrifice and toil? Yet 

I say today, with all my heart, without the 
slightest shade of reservation, that not one 
word, not one breath of opposition or unfriend- 



Rev. John Todd 35 

liness has ever escaped him in all these years. 
And that were small thing for him to ^o — to step 
aside and leave it for another unmolested; that 
were but little. He has done far more than that. 
He has stood beside the new pastor, an active co- 
laborer, earnestly, cheerfully, constantly doing all 
in his power to build up the work. There has 
been none in all this church upon whom I could 
count more absolutely for loyal and faithful sup- 
port. None who spoke more frequent or more 
hearty words of encouragement and affection. 
None more ready for any duty, however small, 
however obscure, however unrewarded, by which 
he might serve his Master and his church. A 
faithful worker he has been." 

His Closing Years 

July 20, 1888, his companion in the morning 
and mid-day of life passed on before. His family, 
with the exception of two daughters, had all mar- 
ried and lived in homes of their own. He spent 
the following winter visiting a married daughter 
in southern California and other friends on that 
coast. The following summer he spent on a home- 
stead in South Dakota, securing a claim for his 
daughter, Minnie. In the autumn he returned and 
lived at the old house in Tabor with this daughter. 
Pleasant acquaintance sprang up with a widow 
of gentle grace and earnest. Christian character, 



3'6 Reminiscences 

who had come to Tabor for the education 
of her family, and on March 26, 1891, they were 
quietly married, and she made a sunny home for 
his declining years. These In some respects were 
probably the happiest years of his life, lllce the 
Beulah land of the Immortal allegory. Her chil- 
dren, in the freshness of youth, enlivened the 
home with sport and song. He was conveniently 
situated to the College which he had been largely 
Influential In founding and perfecting. He was 
constantly In close touch with the church, which 
had been his care for decades, on familiar terms 
with Its new and talented pastor, sharing In the 
pulpit services to the end, and esteemed as a father 
and friend by the whole community. He could 
rejoice In the fruits of his labors and watch the kind 
hand of Providence blessing them, as has been 
granted to few on earth. 

One of his last blessings of which he spoke 
most appreciatively was a visit to the Columbian 
Exposition. His physician had at one time thought 
that he must forego that pleasure. But he had 
strength, and spent a week or more In seeing with 
his own eyes that crowning exhibition of modern 
civilization, and its triumph In all lands, even In 
some that within his memory had been won from 
heathen superstition, so that he was able to look 
upon it as a triumph largely of the kingdom of 



Rev. John Todd 37 

his Master. He met there also many old time 
acquaintances, that added much to his joy. 

His general health and activity continued to the 
last. As before mentioned, he was circulating a 
petition against the repeal of the prohibition law, 
which he looked upon as hostile to the welfare of 
the State. It was a crisp winter morning; he felt 
well and had made several calls, when he entered 
the home of Reuben Reeves, a mile from home. 
He sat down while the man of the house signed the 
paper, who, when he turned to him again, found 
that he was gone without a cry and without a strug- 
gle. The scripture came to many minds: " He 
walked with God, and was not, for God took him." 
As Pastor Cowan well expressed : " To such a 
life as his the end how fitting! He who abhorred 
idleness as few men abhor it, God did not compel 
him one hour of idleness. He fell in the harness, 
his sword uplifted to strike again. He fell in the 
furrow, his hand upon the plow, his face turned 
resolutely toward the task he hoped still to accom- 
plish. He whose spirit would chafe at the thought 
of dependence upon the care and labor of any 
one, however lovingly and eagerly rendered — nor 
wife nor child needed to smooth his dying pillow 
or wipe the sweat from his suffering brow even for 
one hour. In the midst of his labors he was 
called. He walked with God and was not. Faith- 
ful to the last, busy to the last in the Master's 



38 Reminiscences 

service, in his place last Sunday morning minis- 
tering to the people to whom he so long minis- 
tered, in his place last Monday afternoon pro- 
nouncing the words of solemn prayer over the 
casket of a fellow soldier fallen at his side, in his 
place last evening as a member of the official board 
of the church, with kindly question and loving coun- 
sel aiding those soon to confess their faith at the 
altars of the church, in his place last Tuesday even- 
ing in the prayer meeting in his own parlors, in 
his place Wednesday morning bearing from house 
to house that protest against what he believed to 
be gigantic and conscienceless wrong, that prayer 
for the burdened and the tempted and the lost, the 
last stroke of his pen the signature to that petition, 
his last living breath spent in urging others to aid 
in that great cause, so he fell. So he passes from 
us. Oh, worthy apotheosis! Oh, fitting upward 
flight for a spirit such as his has been ! 

" Sometimes death comes to men about us 
doubly terrible because of its suddenness, but here 
is a death as sudden as any could be, yet 
without terror. Aye, and so appropriate. This 
man of God waking that morning saw before him 
a day of labor for the Master, and expected, no 
doubt, that that evening he would be, as his wont 
was, among the people of God in the house of 
prayer. He did not know that he would be there 
only as an invisible presence. When he walked 



Rev. John Todd 39 

up the hill yonder to his neighbor's house that 
morning he did not know that he would not come 
down again in a few moments as strong of limb, 
as bright of eye, as he was then. When he passed 
into that door he did not turn and take one long, 
last look at the beautiful world that he might not 
see again. When he drew the paper out for his 
friend to sign he did not say, 'That hand, with its 
years of busy toil, has now done its last small act; 
its work is over.' There he stood, separated from 
eternity but by the ticking of the clock. What 
mattered it to him? To close his eyes and open 
them again and, having done it, to find himself 
beyond the valley of the shadow of death, beyond 
the deadly Apollyon, beyond the open mouth of 
hell and beyond the dark, rolling river, already up 
the heights, already on the golden shore. 

' O, child of God, O Glory's heir! 
How rich a lot is thine. 
A hand almighty to defend. 

An ear for every call, 
An honored life, a peaceful end. 
And Heaven to crown it all.' " 

His Funeral 

The College claimed the privilege of paying a 
special tribute of respect. On Saturday after- 
noon, after a brief service of hymn and prayer, 
the students carried the body to Gaston Hall, which 



40 Reminiscences 

they had appropriately decorated. Here he lay in 
state until Sunday, visited by many, 

" On Sunday morning, shortly before half past 
ttn, the bearers, members of Father Todd's Sun- 
day school class, all venerable men, reverently 
lifted the casket and bore it forth, when a proces- 
sion was formed as follows: Pastor Cowan and 
Revs. Rice and Nutting; six pall bearers with the 
casket, flanked on either side by a file of old sol- 
diers of John Allen Post, G. A. R., and visiting 
comrades as a guard of honor, commanded by a 
member of Father Todd's own regiment, the 
draped colors being borne by another member of 
the same regiment, and others in the ranks; the 
family of the deceased; college professors; stu- 
dents, and other friends. At the church, drapery 
and a profusion of flowers, the most beautiful and 
fragrant, were placed about the casket and pulpit. 

" Pastor Cowan, Rev. G. G. Rice, of Council 
Bluffs, and Rev. J. K. Nutting, of Glenwood, 
spoke ; the second on * The Pioneer Preacher and 
Founder of Churches,' the last on ' Father and 
Patriarch of the Council Bluffs Association,' and 
the first on ' Our Present Loss.' The Scripture 
readings, hymns, and anthems were most appro- 
priate and beautifully rendered, and all felt it to 
be a most memorable occasion. The procession 
formed again and followed the form of their loved 
pastor and friend to its last resting place." 



Rev. John Todd 41 

In the evening again a full house gathered for 
less formal memorial services. Brief tributes were 
given by Rev. R. R. Hanley, of the Baptist church, 
who spoke of " My Next Door Neighbor; " Dea- 
con A. C. Gaston, of " Planting the Colony;" 
Deacon S. H. Adams, " The Founding of This 
Church;" Deacon J. M. Hill, of "Father Todd 
as Chaplain;" Mrs. J. M. Barbour, of his " Im- 
pressions on the Second Generation;" Professor 
J. T. Fairchild, of " His Constant Activity in the 
Church;" Professor L. J. Nettleton, of " His In- 
fluence on Those He Rarely Met." 

The last speaker moved that the church erect 
some lasting memorial to his memory. Pursuant 
to that a marble tablet has been placed on the 
wall inside the auditorium of the church, recording 
in clear and simple words his long and successful 
work therein. 

His grave may be found in the cemetery, on an 
eastern slope, overlooking the church and college 
which were so largely the objects of his life's work. 



SYNOPSIS OF 
REVEREND TODD'S LIFE 



SYNOPSIS OF 
REVEREND TODD'S LIFE 

Born in West Hanover, Dauphin county, Pa., 
son of Capt. James Todd, of Scotch-Irish origin 
and Presbyterian faith, Nov. lo, 1818. 

Went to college at Oberlin, O., Sept., 1835. 

Received the degree of A. B. at Oberlin College, 
1841. 

Graduated from Oberlin Theological Seminary, 
1844. 

Ordained as Congregational minister, at Ober- 
lin, Aug. 15, 1844. 

Married Miss Martha Atkins, A. B., daughter 
of Judge Atkins, of Cleveland, O., Sept. 10, 1844. 

Began a six years' pastorate at Clarksfield, 
Huron county, O., 1844. 

Invited by Mr. Geo. B. Gaston, of Oberlin, to 
go west as pastor of a colony which should plant 
a college, 1847. 

Went with Dea. G. B. Gaston, S. H. Adams 
and their families, with Dea. J. B. Hall and D. P. 
Matthews to southwestern Iowa, via Cincinnati 
and St. Louis, to look over the land, Sept., 1848. 

Attended a meeting held in Wabonsie to organ- 
ize a county, and chosen one to take the petition 



46 Reminiscences 

east to the first member of the state legislature he 
should find, Oct., 1848. 

Started with Dea. J. B. Hall to ride on horse- 
back from southwestern Iowa to Ohio, middle of 
Oct., 1848. 

Arrived safely at Clarksfield, O., middle of 
Nov., 1848. 

Closed his work at Clarksfield and visited his 
early home. New York city and Washington, 
spring, 1850. 

Moved to Iowa with his family, via Chicago 
and St. Louis, and landed at Lambert's Landing 
(near Percival), July i, 1850. 

Supplied regular preaching at Civil Bend, Flor- 
ence, Trader's Point, Honey Creek, Cutler's Camp 
and High Creek, all in Iowa, and Linden, Mo., 
1851. 

The site of Tabor having been selected instead 
of Civil Bend, their first choice, he moved to a 
claim, two miles south of Tabor, April, 1852. 

He organized the Tabor Congregational church, 
at his home, with eight members, Oct. 12, 1852. 

Moved to his home in Tabor, where he lived 
till his death, August, 1853. 

Organized the Congregational church of Glen- 
wood, 1856. 

Made an extended home missionary tour through 
western Iowa to Sioux City and back through east- 



I 



Rev. John Todd 47 

ern Nebraska. This was at the request of the 
Congregational churches in eastern Iowa. July, 
1857. 

President of the Board of Trustees of Tabor 
Literary Institute, 1857. 

Organized the First Congregational church of 
Sioux City, Monday, Aug. 10, 1857. 

Chaplain of the 46th Iowa (hundred days), 
summer, 1864. 

Began service as Trustee of Tabor College, 
1866. 

Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philos- 
ophy in Tabor College, 1866-69. 

Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in 
Tabor College, 1869-72. 

Librarian of Tabor College, 1877. 

Resigned his pastorate of the Tabor church after 
thirty years' service, 1883. 

Treasurer of Tabor College, 1881-86. 

His wife died suddenly after several years of 
feebleness, July 20, 1888. 

Spent six months with his daughter Minnie near 
Drakola, Kingsbury Co., S. D., summer, 1889. 

Married Mrs. Anna K. Drake, of Tabor, Iowa, 
March 26, 1891. 

Visited the World's Columbian Exposition, Chi- 
cago, Sept., 1893. 



48 Reminiscences 

Died suddenly of heart failure, while circulat- 
ing a petition to the Iowa legislature against re- 
pealing the prohibitory law, Jan. 31, 1894. 

His wife, two sons, four daughters, seven grand- 
sons, four grand-daughters, a step-son and two 
step-daughters survive to mourn his loss. 



EARLY SETTLEMENT AND GROWTH 
OF WESTERN IOWA 



CHAPTER I 
PRELIMINARIES 

BEING asked to write, I here set out, but what 
shall I write? How shall I avoid being 
tediously minute on the one hand, or so gen- 
eral as to be uninteresting on the other? Farther, 
readers are not all interested in the same things. 
Mental constitution, mode of thought, and degree 
of information, respecting matters and persons 
treated of, greatly affect the interest of the reader. 
As time rolls on, and the prominent actors in the 
early settlement of our country are passing away, it 
seems fitting that any events in the past worthy of 
remembrance should be placed on record, and who 
so suitable to record them as one who has himself 
been an actor in the events recorded? 

The settlement known as Tabor has sometimes 
been spoken of as a Colony, but this appellation 
is appropriate, if at all, only in a very general 
sense. While there was interest in a common ob- 
ject expressed and understood, there were no writ- 
ings drawn, no covenant or agreement formally 
entered into between the parties, binding them to 
any specific course of conduct. There was union 
and concert, but it was the union of faith in a com- 



52 Reminiscences 

mon gospel, and concerted action In promoting 
Christian education. They aimed to erect the 
Church and the Hall of Science side by side — each 
to sustain the other, and both to flourish under 
their mutually refreshing shadow. 

George Belcher Gaston, older son of Dea. Alex 
Gaston, of Amherst, Ohio, eager to be about his 
Master's work, went, with his family, as govern- 
ment farmer to the Pawnee Indians, in 1840. In 
a few years, the failure of the health of his family 
occasioned his return to his farm near Oberlin, 
Ohio. But the vision of the great West, with its 
possibilities and destinies, still lingered in his mind. 
The question, *' How can It be secured for Christ? 
What can be done to lay Christian foundations in 
the broad and fertile land, so soon to teem with a 
numerous people?" was an ever recurring one. 
With the work of Oberlin for more than a decade 
of years spread out before him, he conceived the 
Idea of repeating the experiment in southwestern 
Iowa. He thought of It — he prayed over it — he 
conferred with others on the subject — others be- 
came interested — they met weekly, and prayed and 
conferred together for more than a year, before 
any were ready to start. Sometime during the 
summer of 1848, Brother Gaston visited the writer 
in Clarksfield (15 or more miles distant), to talk 
over the matter. He wanted to secure a minister 
of the gospel for the settlement. Wife and I be- 



Rev. John Todd 53 

came interested in the project and consented to go, 
but thought It best that I should first go and see. 
At length in October or November, 1848, the way 
was prepared, and a few of the first emigrants from 
northern Ohio set out for southwestern Iowa, 
viz. : G. B. Gaston and family, S. H. Adams and 
wife, and Darius P. Matthews, attended by Deacon 
Josiah B. Hall and Rev. J. Todd, who went out 
to see the country. Railroads were scarcely known 
in those days. One had recently been opened from 
Sandusky to Cincinnati. We went forty miles to 
take the cars at Belleview. The writer's sister, 
Mrs. Margaret Harrison, of Springfield, Ohio, 
accompanied us as far as Cincinnati, where we took 
boat for St. Louis, and thence by steamer for St. 
Joe, no boats then running higher up the river, ex- 
cept a few that carried government stores to the 
forts on the upper Missouri, and brought down 
furs from the trappers. There were no railroads 
at Chicago and not a foot of one in all Iowa. It 
required a month to send a letter to Ohio and 
receive a reply, and when it came, the postage on it 
was twenty-five cents. Twenty-five cents, eighteen 
and three-fourths, and twelve and a half cents were 
the rates of postage, according to distance. Neither 
envelopes nor stamps were then in use. Who 
would return to primitive simplicity? 



CHAPTER II 



A LOCATION SOUGHT FOR 



RIDE ON THE RIVER 



WE PASSED a night in Cincinnati, and 
availed ourselves of the earliest oppor- 
tunity to take passage for St. Louis, We 
were several days in making the trip, and failed 
to reach St. Louis that week. The water in the 
Ohio river was low, and we were obliged to use 
the portage canal at Louisville to get around the 
rapids. To persons accustomed to active life the 
time seemed long. After the novelty of the new 
relations had worn away, and all had found their 
proper places and settled into them, the tedium 
attending a long river ride became more marked, 
and methods of whiling away the time were re- 
sorted to according to individual opportunities and 
preferences. Some amused themselves with a game 
of cards while others looked on. Some had sup- 
plied themselves with a stock of interesting reading 
matter. Others resorted to the upper deck to gaze 
upon the shifting scenes on either shore, as the 
steamer floated along. Others still, more socially 



Rev. John Todd 55 

disposed, managed to make new acquaintances, and 
sustain animated conversation. 

Breakfast over each day. Brother Gaston in- 
vited his little company into his state room for 
worship, and prayer for divine guidance and dfrec- 
tion in regard to the object he so ardently cherished 
and seemed never to lose sight of. 

One day under a feehng of languor and longing 
for something new to pass the time, the writer 
asked a fellow passenger, in whose hands he had 
sometime before seen " Fuller's Letters on Slav- 
ery," if he would lend him the volume to read. 
Instead of readily and cheerfully granting the re- 
quest, he at once began to ply him with questions, 
evidently for the purpose of drawing out his views 
on the question of slavery. Although by no means 
courting discussion, the writer regarded it cowardly 
not to be willing, when challenged, to avow his 
sentiments and state the reasons for the same. It 
was soon found that his views and those of the 
writer were, on the subject of slavery, directly op- 
posed, and into a hot discussion the parties at once 
plunged. The writer doesn't remember all the 
points touched upon, but he well remembers as- 
serting that the slaves in our country had a 
much better reason for rising and fighting for 
their freedom than our fathers ever had for 
forcibly throwing off the yoke of Great Britain. 
In the meantime the news had gone all over 



56 Reminiscences 

the boat, and passengers from every quarter 
were crowding Into the cabin, where we two 
were engaged in warm controversy, and the 
crowd pressing us on every side. As soon as the 
multitude came near enough to comprehend the 
case, they began to cry out, " Damn the Abo- 
Htionist ! " " Shoot him ! " " Kill him ! " A Louis- 
iana slaveholder, more noisy than the rest, as he 
entered the cabin door, cried out: "The d — d 
Abolitionist! I wish I had him! I would swap 
him off for a dog and then I would shoot the 
dog! " At this juncture the noise and confusion 
had become too great to prolong the debate. The 
writer's friends interposed and led him into a 
stateroom; and the occasion of the excitement being 
gone, the crowd gradually cooled down and dis- 
persed. The book civilly asked for was not ob- 
tained, and the writer subsequently learned that his 
antagonist was a minister of the gospel from Mis- 
souri. Each had judged the other to be of the 
legal profession. 

Next morning when the writer arose ( as he was 
wont to rise earlier than most) he found the col- 
ored servants and waiters in the cabin busy doing 
up their morning work. They recognized him at 
once, and greeted him very cordially, and from that 
time onward until we reached St. Louis, no one on 
board was served more faithfully, or waited upon 



Rev. John Todd 57 

at table more promptly and generously, than was 
your humble servant. 

Among the passengers on board was a young 
man recently from the seminary, and under ap- 
pointment by the A. H. M. Society to a field in 
Missouri, who though not pro-slavery in sentiment 
himself, admitted that he would be under the neces- 
sity of keeping silent on the subject of slavery. 
As we sat conversing together on the upper deck 
the boat rounded to and landed at Cairo, where 
all passengers going south disembarked. Promi- 
nent among these was the Louisiana slaveholder, 
so eager to kill the abolitionist but unwilling to 
disgrace himself by expending his ammunition on 
such unworthy game. As he mounted to the top of 
the levee, followed by his faithful slave in charge 
of his baggage, he cast his eye back, and seeing the 
writer on the deck, called out, " Ho, you abolition- 
ist, ain't you going south with us? I'll keep you 
a week for nothing, till they get ready to hang 
you." The writer replied, " That's where they do 
such things. I'm not going there." 

Before reaching St. Louis it became apparent 
that the boat would not get in before Sabbath 
morning. As Brother Gaston had all his goods on 
board, he felt it to be his duty to remain on board 
with them. Others of us had no such excuse. 
When, therefore, we learned that the boat had to 
land a passenger at St. Genevieve, we proposed to 



^8 Reminiscences 

land with him. It was late Saturday night, very 
dark and raining, and the landing some distance 
from the town. We went for our baggage, but 
the boat did not come to a full stop, but simply 
slowed up to enable them to shove out a plank; 
and we returned just in time to see the plank drawn 
in and the disembarking passenger scrambling up 
a steep bank. 

FROM ST: LOUIS TO PERCIVAL 

In 1848, in proportion to the amount of travel- 
ing done, a larger portion of it was done by river 
steamboat than since railroads have become so 
common. Few boats then ran up the Missouri 
farther than St. Joe, although the river was navig- 
able many hundreds of miles higher up. Boats 
were always lying at the St. Louis landing, ready 
to go wherever business called, and whenever they 
had secured a load. Boats for the upper Missouri 
would advertise accordingly, and as travelers usu- 
ally are eager to be forwarded on their way as 
expeditiously as possible, it is some object to take 
passage on the boat that leaves first for your des- 
tination. Consequently, as you go along the levee 
to ascertain when the different boats are likely to 
start, you will find them exceedingly accommodat- 
ing with promises. They are always going to start 
about the time you want to go, if they can find out 
what that time is. They fire up every day — blow 



Rev.' John Todd 59 

off steam — cause their paddle wheels to revolve in 
the water — splash and spatter and foam, as a race 
horse restive to be gone. These measures are 
resorted to for days in succession in order to retain 
the passengers already engaged, and also to add to 
their numbers. Sometimes you may learn from the 
merchants that they are lying to you. Having had 
occasion to purchase some articles to take along, 
and on urging them to not fail to have them put 
on board by a set time, as the boat was then to 
start, " Why," said the merchant, " they are not 
going to start by that time, you may be sure, for 
there is freight here to be put aboard that same 
boat twenty-four hours later than that." There 
is, however, this redeeming feature in the case, as 
soon as you engage your passage, you can go 
aboard and make yourself at home, and be boarded 
and lodged gratuitously until you do start. 

The Missouri river is always very low in the 
autumn. This fact, together with the many snags 
and sawyers which obstruct the ever-shifting chan- 
nel, makes it difficult to navigate. Its swift but 
turbid waters roll and tumble along their uneven 
and changeful channel, sometimes with a smooth 
surface and again plunging and boiling like a pot. 
The Missouri river boats usually carry with them 
two mast-like sparring poles, with rope and tackle, 
to help over sand bars and lift the boat off when it 
gets aground. So shifting is the alluvial soil 



6o Reminiscences 

through which the river flows that the principal 
channel can be determined in places only by the 
lead and line. One day the pilot, being in doubt 
as to where the channel lay, ordered out the " lead 
and line." As the boatman threw it he cried out, 
"No bottom!" "No bottom!" "No bottom!" 
and the very next throw, " Five feet and a 
half! " Of course the boat could not run at 
night, and the passage became necessarily tedious. 
Before reaching St. Joe our boat ran for miles 
through what we were told was a few years before 
a luxurious corn field. We reached St. Joe Sat- 
urday afternoon. As we were intending to pro- 
cure horses there, and proceed the rest of the way 
by land, we no sooner made our wishes known than 
plenty of horses were offered at very reasonable 
rates, the owners apparently eager to sell. Brother 
Gaston bought a span, and Deacon Hall and the 
writer each one horse. We took lodgings at the 
Edgar House, then two or more blocks from the 
river, but twenty-five years later a frail, deserted 
building on the river's brink. 

Having rested on the Lord's day and attended 
worship with Christian friends, we arose on Mon- 
day morning refreshed and eager to reach our des- 
tination. 

The wagon and buggy which Brother Gaston 
had brought with him were soon fitted up and 
goods loaded. As my horse was not broken to 



Rev. John Todd 6l 

harness, Deacon Hall's was harnessed to the buggy 
to take the women and children. Thus our little 
caravan of ten persons set out for a hundred mile 
journey to Percival, Iowa. But we had not pro- 
ceeded far before we learned that Brother Hall's 
horse was not a safe buggy beast, and that some 
different arrangement must be made. The con- 
vincing evidence of that fact was as follows : We 
had proceeded but a short distance — the writer on 
horseback in front, followed by Deacon Hall, Mrs. 
Adams, Mrs. Gaston and Euphelia in the buggy, 
and after them Brother Gaston, Alexander and 
Alonzo in the loaded wagon, and S. H. Adams 
and D. P. Matthews on foot some distance still in 
the rear. As the buggy neared a bridge across a 
small stream which wended its way at the bottom 
of a deep worn channel, the animal became restive 
and fractious, and had scarcely crossed the bridge 
when Deacon Hall, in efforts to control it, broke 
one of the lines and thus caused the animal to turn 
short about and plunge down the bank and dart 
through under the bridge, throwing some of the 
passengers clear across the brook, breaking the 
buggy and leaving it bottom side up, the horse 
never stopping until it had torn itself entirely free; 
nor could it be made to go near the buggy again, 
and all pronounced it unsafe. Some were seriously 
but none dangerously hurt, although they bore the 
marks of the injuries for months. The whole 



62 Reminiscences 

catastrophe occurred in much less time than it can 
be told. 

Accordingly the buggy and some of the lading 
were left by the way, and we went forward — two 
on horseback and the rest with the leaded wagon. 

Thus we plodded on our weary way through a 
sparsely peopled country where conveniences and 
comforts were few — no nobility to cringe to, no 
palatial residences to covet, nor overflowing wealth 
to envy, but everywhere a simple-hearted generos- 
ity that stands ready to help in time of need. Some- 
times we found friendly shelter at night, and some- 
times we slept under the broad canopy of heaven, 
but in due time without any serious mishap we 
reached the hospitable home of Lester W. Piatt 
and Elvira, his wife, in October, 1848. They had 
been expecting us, and our arrival was a mutually 
joyous meeting. 

A LOCATION SOUGHT FOR 

Having reached our destination, and while en- 
joying a hearty hospitality, we took it a little 
leisurely, resting a day or two from our long jour- 
ney, though never losing sight of the object in 
view. 

From Oberlin, where there was but one church, 
and the people eminently a church-going people, 
the writer took his first pastorate in Clarksfield, 
where were three churches in a community not 
half so populous as Oberlin, and where the at- 



Rev. John Todd 63 

tendants on worship, in all three churches taken 
together, were not half so many as attended the 
one church in Oberlin. These facts deeply im- 
pressed the writer with the wastefulness and want 
of economy with which evangelistic efforts were 
carried on — and the importance of more union and 
cordial co-operation in the work of the Lord among 
Christians; and while it seemed impracticable to 
organize union, where the different denominations 
had already started separately, yet the folly and 
cost of so many divisions among God's people was 
so apparent that, if in the outset on the frontiers the 
children of God could be brought together, we 
might hope to secure permanent union. This con- 
sideration more than any other led the writer to 
consider favorably the proposition to come to 
southwestern Iowa. 

Some time before, Dr. Ira D. Blanchard and 
family, including Miss Abbie Walton, so recently 
deceased (1890), located in the near vicinity of 
Mr. Piatt's. They had come from the Baptist 
mission among the Indians in Kansas, but were 
open comm.union in sentiment. There were 
also a dozen or more families in a circuit of 
two or three miles radius, some of whom were 
decidedly partial to Methodism. Most of the 
latter were from Virginia, Kentucky and Mis- 
souri, where free schools were not prevalent, and 
many of them were unable to read or write. 



64 Reminiscences 

We soon began to search out the country, travel- 
ing usually on horseback, escorted by Mr. Piatt, 
or Dr. Blanchard, and sometimes attended by both. 
We were taken across the bottom to the big spring, 
and visited Father Rector's. Again, we passed 
through the large body of timber, in the bend 
of the river. To those of us who had lived among 
the thick forests of northern Ohio, the tall straight 
cottonwoods looked very homelike and inviting, 
while in the uplands the trees were more scatter- 
ing and shorter, requiring, according to the idiom 
of the country, two trees in order to get a log long 
enough to make a fence post. Indeed, timber was 
so scarce in the bluffs that we did not expect to 
see the prairie between the Missouri and the Nish- 
nabotna all settled up in our lifetime. The Mis- 
souri bottom, with a width of eight miles, and ex- 
tending north and south far beyond the reach of 
human vision, was a beautiful level plain, whose 
fertility was assured by the tall, rank grass which 
everywhere clothed its surface. Repeatedly did 
we hear the saddening story of many thousands 
of dollars lost for want of flocks and herds enough 
to consume the grass. Another time we attended a 
political mass meeting on the Wabonsie creek, not 
far below the old carding mill, where Wabonsa, 
the old Indian chief, was said to have once re- 
sided. The meeting was called to take measures 
to urge upon the legislature the organization of a 



Rev. John Todd 65 

new county In the southwest corner of the state, 
as the Gentiles In these parts were restive under 
Mormon rule at KanesvIUe. The meeting was 
numerously attended and harmonious In Its action. 
A form of petition was agreed upon, signed, and 
entrusted to Joslah B. Hall and John Todd, with 
instructions to leave it with the first member of the 
legislature they should meet as they crossed the 
state on their return to Ohio, which they accord- 
ingly did. 

At another time we took a ride north as far 
as Trader's Point, about forty miles, left our 
horses on this side of the river, and crossed over in 
a skiff to the Presbyterian Indian Mission, which 
occupied the present site of Bellevlew. There we 
found Rev. Mr. McKInney in charge of a board- 
ing school for Indian children, and enjoyed a plea- 
sant talk with him about the success of his work. 
As Brother Gaston had for a time lived among the 
Indians at that point, he was well acquainted with 
many of them, and we were permitted to enter 
many of their log cabins with him, and were Intro- 
duced to many of his aboriginal friends In their 
own homes — Indian, squaw, and papoose, all in 
their native style and polished manners. After 
a hasty call and friendly chat, to most of us wholly 
unintelligible, we retreated across the river and 
mounting our steeds took up our line of march 
eastward along the Mormon trail. Deacon Hall 



66 Reminiscences 

and the writer set out for Ohio, and our com- 
panions kindly accompanied us as far as Silver 
Creek, where we lodged together in the unfinished 
house of Dr. Dalrymple, In the morning (Fri- 
day) we parted, Brother Hall and the writer to 
pursue our long and lonely way to Ohio, the others 
to return to Civil Bend to provide winter quarters 
for their families. We had found no very de- 
sirable location for our purpose. The uplands 
were ineligible because so rough, hilly and desti- 
tute of building timber. The bottoms, though 
level, beautiful, and possessed of inexhaustible fer- 
tility, were low, and though now dry, indicated in 
places that they were sometimes overflowed. On 
the whole, it was agreed that we had found no 
point preferable to the vicinity of Percival. We 
had heard much of the beauty and desirableness 
of " the three river country," and were charged 
to keep on the lookout as we crossed the state and 
visit if possible "the three river country," in the 
vicinity of Des Moines, and, if we found any more 
desirable location we should inform them by letter, 
otherwise the vicinity of Percival would be re- 
garded as the location. 



CHAPTER III 
RETURN HOME 

A THOUSAND-MILE HORSEBACK RIDE 

FROM that unfinished house of Dr. Dalrymple 
on Silver Creek, on Friday in "October, 
1848, Deacon Josiah B. Hall, a native of 
New England, and myself turned our faces east- 
ward and struck out for Ohio. We had traveled 
on the " Mormon trail " from near Trader's Point. 
This was at that time the only road connecting the 
settlements in eastern Iowa with the Missouri 
slope. As there were thousands of Mormons who, 
dissatisfied with their treatment at Nauvoo, had 
decided to make Salt Lake valley their home, per- 
sons were sent in advance to look out a practicable 
route, build bridges, and prepare the way. Six- 
teen months or more before, the mass of them 
passed over this road on their way from Illinois 
to Utah. In order to avoid famine in that wild 
and uncultivated region, many of them stopped 
temporarily by the way, so that the first settlers 
along that road, in the Missouri valley, and along 
the way by groves and streams, were chiefly Mor- 
mons. 



68 Reminiscences 

Setting out then from Silver Creek our course 
lay by Indiantown in Cass county, of which we 
heard frequent mention; and as it would be diffi- 
cult to get grain for our horses on the way, we 
purposed to give them a good feed at Indiantown. 
Our own provisions we carried with us, also two 
blankets and a buffalo robe. On we went, stopping 
only to lunch and graze, till the sun had far de- 
scended the western sky, when on looking forward 
we discovered a log house and deemed that we 
were coming into the vicinity of Indiantown, but 
as that house was several rods from the track of 
our road, we concluded to pass on until we came 
to the town before feeding. That house stood in 
the forks of Indian creek and the East Nishna- 
botna, where we saw also poles, crotches, and bark, 
arranged in Indian style, for lodges. These doubt- 
less gave rise to the name Indiantown, for we saw 
no more houses in that region. We fed no grain, 
for the good reason there was none to feed. Still 
on we rode, until darkness closed down around us, 
and the pressing, practical question was, " Where 
shall we lodge? " On looking ahead we discerned, 
as we descended a hill to cross a stream, a fire of 
logs in a grove on the opposite bank, and a num- 
ber of people gathered about it enjoying them- 
selves apparently. On asking them if we might 
share their fire with them for the night, they re- 



Rev. John Todd 69 

fused, and we rode on. They had their teams 
out in the direction we were going, grazing. When, 
therefore, we passed on, they followed us, until 
we were quite by, evidently judging us to be horse 
thieves, and deciding to give us no chance to steal 
theirs. On we went several miles further in the 
dark, then turned down in a hollow, several rods 
from the road, where we camped, if camping it 
could be called, when we had neither tent nor 
wagon — not a tree, or stake, or bush to tie to — 
the blue concave above bespangled with stars, and 
the howl of the prairie wolf in the distance, from 
different points of the horizon. We had not 
learned to tie our horses, each to the other's tail. 
There seemed no alternative but that one of us 
hold the horses, while the other slept. Arranging 
the saddles so as to ward off the wind, and the 
blankets and robe for comfort and warmth, my 
comrade was soon in dreamland, while I kept 
vigils. About midnight we exchanged places; but 
as the moon rose at two or three in the morning, 
it was thought best to push forward, as we would 
with difficulty reach a resting place for the Sab- 
bath. So we packed up and mounted, finding, as 
the day dawned, both frost and ice. We journeyed 
on through all that day with scarcely the sight of 
a human being, until we were glad to see and speak 
with any man, be he Mormon, horse thief, or In- 



"JO Reminiscences 

dian. The road seemed long. We traveled hours 
in the morning by moonlight — all day long with 
as little stop as possible — and to 9 o'clock at night, 
always supposing that we went not less than sev- 
enty miles. We came upon campers by the way- 
side sometime before we reached our destination, 
and sweeter music the writer never heard than was 
the tinkling of that first cowbell that Saturday 
evening. The place was called Pisgah, and we 
took quarters with Elder York of the church of 
Latter Day Saints, until the following Monday. 
We were well entertained although we were not 
treated to all the luxuries of a Boston market. 
From our Pisgah we were more desirous just then 
to see the land of Nod than the land of Canaan. 
Whether this settlement has a place or a name on 
modern maps I know not, but my remembrance of 
it was that of a little valley among hills by a small 
stream, in which were a few log dwellings, with 
a small, plain house of worship on higher ground. 
After seeing our horses cared for, and satisfying 
the inner man, we were prepared to test Solomon's 
truthfulness when he said, " The sleep of a labor- 
ing man is sweet whether he eat little or much." 
Surely the Sabbath is a godsend to weary mortals ! 
So dark was the night, that not until the morning 
dawn could we form any adequate conception of 
either the place or the people. 



Rev. John Todd 71 

A SABBATH AT PISGAH 

Many utterly refuse to hallow or keep holy 
God's Sabbath, yet comparatively few fail to be 
benefited, even by their very imperfect observance 
of it. To most persons it breaks in upon the mo- 
notony pecuhar to other days, and by change brings 
rest. There may be no thankful, prayerful, wor- 
shipful heart — no reading or study of the Bible — 
no going to church or joining in public divine wor- 
ship — little thought of God, and less of obliga- 
tions to Him, and yet the Sabbath Is to man, as an 
animal, a blessing — a rest as it Is to his horse or 
his ox. The day Is by most persons treated rest- 
fully. They lie longer In the morning — are freer 
from care through the day — business presses less 
heavily — fathers renew their acquaintance with 
their families — children return from toil, and 
gather around the home circle — flurry and hurry 
are wanting — a leisurely, deliberate gait attends 
every movement. This Itself tends to lengthen 
life, and promote health. The Sabbath evidently 
brought a change In PIsgah. 

As we entered the common apartment In the 
morning our host greeted us with a hearty " good 
morning," and sat down to entertain his guests by 
conversation, while the breakfast was in course of 
preparation. Among other things, the writer in- 
quired of him the views of Morm.ons In regard 



72 Reminiscences 

to the Sabbath. He rephed that they believed in 
the Sabbath just as Christians generally do — that 
they regard it as of divine appointment — a day of 
rest and worship, but that they had been so unset- 
tled that they had not been able to observe it so 
strictly as they otherwise might have done. Some 
of them, he said, took the liberty to hunt prairie 
chickens on Sunday, and justified themselves by 
saying, " Anyone having domestic fowls would 
think it no wrong to go to his hen house and get 
a chicken to satisfy hunger on the Sabbath. The 
prairie is our hen house. The only difference is 
ours is less convenient." As we passed out of the 
gate to go to church, some of the boys were play- 
ing ball in the street. The Elder ordered them 
into the house, and asked, "Where is John?" 
They replied, " He is gone hunting." The whole 
tone and manner of the boys showed very plainly 
that they were not used to having their play broken 
up in that way. The meeting house, a small very 
plain structure, stood on the top of a hill or bluff 
near by, where were gathering the residents of the 
settlement, and travelers camping near. There 
were present that day two Elders who had just 
returned from the valley of Salt Lake to inform 
the brethren on the way of the prospect that 
awaited them there, and encourage them to go for- 
ward. The first speaker, among other things, 
commented on some passages of scripture in the 



Rev. John Todd 73 

following style: Gen. 2: 16-17, "Of every tree 
of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die." " Now, how is this? This 
command was given to our first parents near the 
beginning of their existence. They remained obe- 
dient but a short time manifestly, and yet Adam 
lived 930 years. How are we to understand it? 
Peter tells us that ' one day is with the Lord as a 
thousand years,' and Adam didn't live a thousand 
years. So you see he died the same Lord's day 
that he ate of the forbidden fruit. It is by com- 
paring scripture with scripture that we may hope 
to understand the Bible." 

After he had finished and sat down, his brother 
arose and discoursed upon th^ attractions of Salt 
Lake valley thus: " You needn't be afraid to go 
on to the valley, lest you want for bread. They 
have had excellent crops there. Nothing but the 
pure wheat grows there. They have raised wheat 
in abundance to supply all that are likely to go on, 
and more too; so that none who go on need fear 
coming to want. You may have heard that the 
crickets injured the corn. Well, they did eat some 
of the outside rows, but by and by the gulls came 
along and ate up the crickets, and so made a good 
job of it all around. But before I stop I want to 
tell you a story. A man at the east invented a 



74 Reminiscences 

gun which possessed properties of sufficient worth 
to get it patented. He accordingly had a model 
constructed, preparatory to applying for a patent. 
But before he sent it off he undertook to exhibit 
its extraordinary qualities to a friend of his, and, 
while looking at it, it began to shoot — and it shot ! 
— and shot! — and shot! — until it shot itself all 
away but the lock, and that lay snapping; and now 
lest I be like that gun, I will sit down, for I don't 
want to be snapping." These were the remarks, 
the application, and conclusion, of this peculiar 
discourse, and the speaker sat down. 

An item of business was brought forward at 
the close. Some of the poor saints had reached 
them on their way westward, and lacked means to 
proceed farther. A collection was accordingly 
taken, and arrangements made to forward them on 
their way to Council Bluffs (then Kanesville). 

As there were no farther public services, we re- 
turned to Elder York's, and improved the remain- 
der of the day in reading and resting. That night 
it rained, which Deacon Hall always spoke of as 
a special providence to prevent the stealing of our 
horses. We were hospitably received, well enter- 
tained, and not exorbitantly taxed. On the morrow 
we passed on our way rested and refreshed, both 
we and our horses. 

We were now so near " the three river country," 
that in conversation with Elder York, we learned 



Rev. John Todd 75 

that some of his neighbors had gone there in the 
early spring to make sugar. I proposed, therefore, 
to Deacon Hall that we leave the Mormon trail, 
and visit that country often so highly commended. 
But he would not hear of it at all, contemptuously 
saying, " Do you think the Lord would send us 
round by the Missouri river, if He wanted us to 
go to the three river country? " 

The rain during Sunday night rendered the road 
somewhat muddy, nevertheless after breakfasting 
and settling our bills, we again mounted our steeds, 
and set our faces eastward. Our roadway was for 
the most part discreetly chosen. As the country 
was generally well watered by rivulets, whose flow 
had commonly cut deep channels through the soft 
alluvial soil, which required bridging, economy oft- 
en prompted a crossing just above a break off where 
the confluent water of a marsh began to form its 
channel. The safe way here was usually a narrow 
way. To go too near the brink or waterfall on the 
one hand, was attended with danger, and to venture 
out among the cat tail flags on the other, was hardly 
less perilous. Fortunately for us, we were on 
horseback, and not cumbered with a wheeled 
vehicle. Once we found a deep stream, where the 
bridge had been carried off by a freshet, leaving 
only the stringers. The problem to solve was, how 
to get across. The horses could not walk the 
stringers, and to attempt to ford so deep, swift and 



76 Reminiscences 

swollen a current, with banks almost perpendicular, 
involved great risk. By carrying our saddles over 
on the stringers, and by means of a lariat, one drew 
the horses from the farther side, while the other 
urged them into the stream on this side. Thus we 
got safely over, and were enabled to pursue our 
lonely way. Although houses were few in this part 
of Iowa at that time, we always found lodging un- 
der shelter. One night in the vicinity of the White 
Breast stream we stopped over night with a Mr. 
Wilson of perhaps threescore years, who with his 
wife had the year before come from the region 
of Savannah, Mo., taken a claim, and made a 
new start in frontier life. They had built a log 
cabin, and made some improvements, and enter- 
tained us right hospitably. From our host we 
learned of his experience the following: 

In beginning a home with everything to be done, 
it is always wise to do first, what is most necessary. 
His team was an indispensable helper, yet at first 
he could feed his horses only by tying them out on 
the prairie at the end of a rope to graze. One 
morning he rose early to get his horses to go to 
mill, as they were about out of flour; and went out 
hatless, and lo ! his horses were gone. By tracking 
them he ascertained the direction they had taken 
and hoped to find them in the next hollow. So 
he followed, lured on still by hope of seeing 
them from the top of the next rise. On and on 



Rev. John Todd 77 

he went — drawn by hope, and impelled by ne- 
cessity; for what could he do without a team? 
He could' not go to mill, and two persons would 
sooner starv^e on the little they had than would one, 
and so on he pushed hatless and coatless, in the 
dishabille in which he sallied forth in the morning. 
After many disappointments, hope of overtaking 
them began to fail; but as he was already far from 
his home, what better could he do than to follow 
on to the place, from which he had brought them? 
And so he did, and found them there, after a tramp 
of not less than one hundred and twenty-five miles, 
and most of the way across a trackless prairie. 

Before reaching the Des Moines river we left 
the Mormon trail, and crossed the river at Eddy- 
ville on a ferryboat, which was propelled across 
by the force of the current. 

At Fairfield we found a member of the Iowa 
legislature, and entrusted to him the petition sent 
by us from the Gentile mass meeting held in 
Wabonsie to the legislature, asking for the organ- 
ization of a new county in southwestern Iowa. We 
found Hon. Mr. Baker, a member of the Iowa 
legislature, at work in his blacksmith shop, and 
as we asked an interview on business, he dropped 
his hammer, folded his arms, seated himself on 
his anvil, and gave audience. We presented the 
petition, related the circumstances in which it was 
drawn up, and requested him to bring the matter 



78 Reminiscences 

before the legislature at its next meeting. We 
understood him to promise that he would, but 
never heard from the papers afterward. After a 
lapse of many years, I incidentally met the same 
Mr. Baker in Council Bluffs, when on inquiring 
about the m.atter, he replied that he never presented 
the petition at all — that he took us to be Mormons, 
and considered the whole to be a Mormon device. 

From Fairfield, passing through Mt. Pleasant, 
Burlington (where we ferried the Mississippi 
river) , and Monmouth, we spent the Sabbath, and 
worshipped with a good Methodist brother, in a 
country place, about six miles south of Galesburg. 

On Monday morning we passed on to Galesburg, 
called on Rev. Lucius H. Parker, and thence 
directed our course toward Granville in Putnam 
county, where we found my father, brother, sister 
and brother-in-law, Mr. French. As it was getting 
late in the season, and cold weather seemed im- 
minent, we only stayed over night, and passed on 
in the morning. It had rained and snowed, so that 
the puddles along the road were frozen over. 
Near Valparaiso, Indiana, we passed the polling 
place, where a crowd was gathered holding the 
presidential election of November, 1848. Our 
third Sabbath on the way was spent at a hotel 
in Wheatland, Michigan. We attended service in 
a school house, where the writer preached in the 
evening. We found the road very bad through the 



Rev. John Todd 79 

Maumee swamp, but in the course of the week we 
reached our homes in Ohio, without sickness, 
accident or any farther remarkable occurrence. 
Soon after, we met in public meeting at Oberlin, 
the friends interested in our enterprise, and 
presented a detailed statement of what we had 
learned about the country, and the feasibility of 
the contemplated settlement. Some thought fa- 
vorably of the project and others unfavorably. 



CHAPTER IV 
INTERIM AND RETURN TO IOWA 

ON THE writer's return to Ohio, his pastoral 
duties to the people of his charge in 
Clarksfield were resumed, and continued 
for about eighteen months longer. Meanwhile 
correspondence was kept up between the friends 
already in Iowa, and those in Ohio, who were 
interested in the success of the enterprise. No one, 
however, from Ohio joined those already in Iowa 
during the year 1849. ^^t in the spring of 1850, 
Deacon John W. Smith, of Litchfield, and Deacon 
Josiah B. Hall, of Oberlin, Ohio, with their fam- 
ilies joined the settlement at Percival, going by way 
of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 
the same spring the writer's pastoral relations with 
the church in Clarksfield ceased. His household 
goods were packed and forwarded to Iowa in the 
care of Deacons Hall and Smith, while we, after 
sorrowful partings from those we had learned to 
love, and sad farewells, repaired to the residence 
of the writer's father-in-law, Judge Atkins in 
Cleveland, where we also had a numerous family 
meeting, which proved to most of that large family 
group a last meeting on earth, as but one now sur- 



Rev. John Todd 8i 

vives. As we were going to so remote a part of the 
countr}', It seemed like a last farewell. The writer 
too visited the place of his nativity, and looked once 
more upon the scenes of his childhood — the stone 
house — the barn where we played " hide and 
seek " — the old red pump where we so often slaked 
our thirst — the green meadow coursed by a rippling 
rill, where we so often sprinkled the bleaching 
cloths — the pasture where on the green hill-side 
the lambkins sportively played, while their dams 
quietly grazed by their side — the pond near by, 
the paradise of geese and ducks in summer and of 
skating boys and girls in lainter, but a worse than 
Tartarus to the luckless hen that chanced to lead 
her bastard brood of ducklings too near its shore — 
there too was the orchard where we so often 
satiated our craving for fruit — there the garden, 
where currants and strawberries flourished, and 
where wise and honored parents so oft required of 
lazy boys the thorough cleaning out of a definite 
portion of weedy garden, before any playing could 
be allowed. They required it, and made their 
word good, and now their children rise up and call 
them blessed. How mistaken the notion that to 
let children have their own way is kindness ! It 
is a downright curse ! 

The writer also passed on to New York, and 
visited Washington, — looked in upon the august 
legislators of this great nation — Webster, and Clay, 



82 Reminiscences 

and Benton and their compeers, he entered the 
White House, and stood by the side of President 
Taylor, only a short time before he died. From 
the center of national power, and wealth, and 
culture, and art, and refinement, he turned his face 
to the frontier of civilization. 

As the friends in Iowa had expressed a wish 
that a teacher for their school should accompany 
the writer on his return, he accordingly obtained 
the consent of Miss Rachel Tucker (now Mrs. 
D. P. Matthews) to respond to that call. She 
accordingly joined us at Cleveland, where with 
wife and three children, we all embarked on a 
steamer for Detroit — thence by. the Michigan Cen- 
tral railroad to Michigan City — thence by steamer 
across Lake Michigan to Chicago (then an in- 
significant village) — thence by Illinois and Mich- 
igan canal to LaSalle — thence by private convey- 
ance to Granville, where we visited for several days, 
and saw father for the last time. Again we took 
steamer at Hennepin on the Illinois river, but the 
river was very low, and our progress was thereby 
very much retarded, so that, instead of reaching St. 
Louis before the Sabbath, as we were encouraged 
to expect, when Saturday evening came, we found 
ourselves many miles from the mouth of the 
Illinois river. Accordingly we were put ashore 
and stopped over the Sabbath, and not until 
Tuesday or Wednesday did we find a chance to 



Rev. John Todd 83 

re-embark. Did a proper regard for die Sabbath 
require this at our hands? 

We reached St. Louis in safety, and were de- 
tained there several days before we found a boat, 
that would take us to our destination. We had the 
usual experience of a boat ascending the Missouri 
river, but had to contend with fewer obstructions, 
as there was a full stage of water. Although de- 
siring to stop at Lambert's landing, the captain 
took us to Council Bluffs, and left us on his return 
the next day, July i, 1850, at Lambert's landing. 
We were glad enough to find a stopping place. We 
found that a long and tiresome journey prepares 
the emigrant to be content with the necessary 
privations and hardships of a frontier settlement. 
Our friends greeted and welcomed us most cordial- 
ly, and our meeting was the occasion of mutual 
gladness. 

In the twenty months since Mr. Gaston's arrival 
much had been done, considering the few there 
were to do, and the inconveniences under which they 
labored. A house had been built for Mr. Gaston, 
a house for Mr. Adams, a house erected and en- 
closed for the minister when he should come, a 
school house also for the school, and a frame for 
a steam saw mill, and boiler room to receive the 
boiler, when the machinery already contracted for 
should arrive. A kiln of bricks had been made and 
burned, and a shingle factory had been started, 



84 Reminiscences 

and thousands of shingles been made, besides 
stables, barns, and sheds for stock. Many acres 
of land too had been broken and enclosed. 

In Christian work too they had not been idle. 
A union church had been organized embracing 
most of the professed Christians of the neighbor- 
hood. A Sunday school had been started, and 
many of the people had been gathered Into it. A 
well attended weekly prayer meeting was main- 
tained. A temperance society was organized, and 
numbers in the community had been induced to sign 
the pledge for the first time. When the minister 
came among them, the various parts of the 
machinery for Christian work were already in 
operation. The first public service to which he was 
called was a Sunday school celebration of the 
Fourth of July, when he was called upon to address 
the children In the unfinished boiler room of the 
steam mill. Mrs. Piatt had drilled and prepared 
the children to sing on the occasion, which they did 
with great spirit and enthusiasm. After the public 
exercises a picnic or basket dinner was discussed by 
the assembled throng. Though comparatively a 
day of small things, it was a great day to many — 
a day such as they never had seen before. 



CHAPTER V 
GETTING INTO THE WORK 

ALTHOUGH a log house had been raised 
and roofed for the minister before his 
arrival, it was not in a state to be occupied. 
There was neither floor nor door in it. Mr. 
Gaston's house was not completed, but such accom- 
modations as it afforded were willingly shared with 
the minister and his family, until his own home 
could be made tenantable. A chamber floored by 
a few loose boards formed his sleeping apartment, 
and the forest near by, his study, so that he lacked 
not for ventilation by night, or by day. Soon, 
however, practicable measures were taken to finish 
the parsonage. No pine lumber was attainable in 
the region anywhere, and no lumber of any kind 
nearer than 2<; miles, and only a little and at fa- 
vored times could be had as near as that. Conse- 
quently Mr. Gaston and Mr. Adams with some 
others to assist repaired to the woods with team 
and tools, selected and felled a free splitting cotton- 
wood tree, sawed it into pieces of about six feet in 
length, which were then split into slabs or pun- 
cheons, as like heavy plank as they could be made 
by splitting. These were drawn to the parsonage, 



86 Reminiscences 

a mile or more distant, where by a little ingenuity, 
they were set and firmly held on their edge, until 
one side was smoothed with a broadax. These, 
when properly placed upon the sleepers, formed 
a passably good floor. A doorway was also cut, 
a door frame inserted and a door hung, and the 
house was ready for the parson. 

Owing to the late hour of its completion and our 
desire to relieve our friends, and get into improved 
quarters, we moved into our new house late Satur- 
day evening. The three children had gone to sleep, 
and were stowed away for the night, while we, 
their parents, devoted ourselves industriously to 
arranging our household effects, so that we might 
keep the Sabbath in a Christian way. We had 
provided ourselves with mosquito bars and fixtures, 
but supposed that in a new house, we might pass 
at least two nights without them. But very soon, 
restlessness on the part of the children, and an 
occasional outcry assured us that the enemy had 
already gained entrance, and demanded immediate 
attention. Not until we had surrounded our bed 
with mosquito bars, and driven out the invaders, 
did we dare to retire. Persons of the present day 
can form little idea of the annoyance produced by 
these insignificant pests, in those early days — in- 
significant in size but formidable in numbers. The 
usual prairie breezes kept them down in the tall 
grass, but in a calm sultry evening it was amusing 



Rev. John Todd 87 

to see milking done. It was a brush with both 
hands about the face and ears — then a hasty draw 
from the cow's udder — these movements alter- 
nating with great regularity until the work was 
done. Sometimes it was with difficulty that 
respiration was performed without inhaling mos- 
quitos. Indeed, in some calm afternoons they 
would rise from the grass so numerous and dense 
as to cast a haze over the sun. They were of a 
prolific and sturdy species. "A great many of them 
would weigh a pound," and if they did not sit on 
the trees and bark, it was because there were no 
trees there. During that first summer the building 
of a mosquito smoke toward evening became a 
daily necessity. Nor would these sacrilegious pests 
hesitate to break in upon our devotional hours. 
We often found it necessary in our weekly prayer 
meetings to watch and fight as well as pray, and not 
infrequently would be heard between the ascending 
petitions the sweep or brush of the hand to drive 
away the assailing foe. 

But the hot season soon passed by and the 
bracing winds of autumn began to whistle around 
our dwellings. Many were looking anxiously for 
the steam saw mill in expectation, that they might 
obtain the lumber needed to make their homes 
comfortable for the approaching winter. The 
parsonage was no exception. High enough for 
a stoi7 and a half, it was open from puncheon floor 



88 R 



eminiscences 



to the shingles on the roof, and a Stuart cooking 
stove, that freezes the cook, could do httle toward 
warming properly such a house. Lumber was not 
obtained until late in December — not until it had 
become so cold that the water in our glasses at 
table actually froze over, while we were eating 
(for adhering still to our Oberlin principles we 
used neither tea nor coffee). Our table too was 
as near the stove as we could place it, and the stove 
as hot as we could make it. The weather was 
very cold. The piercing prairie winds had come 
down upon us in their fury, as if to destroy us. 
But the cold relaxed. Lumber was obtained. A 
floor overhead narrowed the space to be warmed, 
and we were more comfortable. The minister's 
study was the common family room. Two holes 
were bored in a log on the north side, at a proper 
height and incline, in these two wooden pins were 
inserted, and across these a puncheon was fastened. 
This was the writing desk, but, as in cold weather, 
this was too far from the stove to be comfortable, 
the parson seated himself by the stove, and with 
portfolio on his lap and inkstand on the stove or 
on the lid of some pot, there prepared his sermons. 
As the puncheon floor became seasoned, the children 
were greatly annoyed by the sudden disappearance 
of their playthings down the cracks. After ad- 
justing matters around home and providing for the 
comfort and welfare of the family, arrangements 



Rev. John Todd 89 

were made for holding religious services abroad. 

About 1849 when the wonderful stories of rich 
gold mines in California had crazed so many, a 
company of emigrants set out from Bureau 
county, Illinois, to cross the plains, consisting of 
father and mother Clark, stepson Barnes and 
family, two daughters, Mary and Cordelia, and 
their husbands Tozier and Martin, two sons, Am- 
brose and George, and their wives, and one un- 
married son, James — thirteen adults in all, 
for California across the plains, but having started 
too late in the season to reach their destination, 
stopped to winter on the east bank of the Missouri 
river, at a point opposite the mouth of the Big 
Platte river. There they laid out a town calling 
it California City. (In later years it was known 
as Florence.) As a company they never went 
farther. At that point regular appointments were 
made. Several of the company were professing 
Christians, others became interested and a little 
church was formed which existed for a number of 
years until several died, some moved away, the 
location went into the river and other points 
attracted the people. 

At Trader's Point, 8 miles farther north and 
nearly east of Belleview in Nebraska^ a place of 35 
or 40 buildings, another appointment was made. 
Still another on Honey Creek, 18 miles above 
Council Bluffs. Another at Stutsman's Mills on 



90 Reminiscences 

the West Nishnabotna. Again in Cutler's camp 
on Silver Creek, not very distant from Silver City. 
There were appointments also on High Creek, and 
at Linden in Missouri. Glenwoood and Sidney 
had then no existence. Sidney was selected for 
the county seat in the summer of 185 1, but had 
only a pole with the stars and stripes flying there- 
from to mark the site selected. No buildings were 
erected on the site until the latter part of that 
summer. 

The steam mill did not reach the settlement on 
the Missouri bottom until December, and was so 
far from complete in its parts that it was a source 
of great vexation all winter. The man, Mr. Lyons, 
sent out to set it up, could not make it work satis- 
factorily. It produced some lumber, but at a dear 
rate. Every repair was made at a great disadvan- 
tage so remote from all machine shops. 

Since in the unorganized state of our county, 
there was no legally recognized school district, or 
established public school, some of the neighbors on 
the bottom friendly to education co-operated, and 
erected a comfortable log school house about the 
year 1849. ^^ this a flourishing school, embracing 
most of the children of school age in the vicinity, 
was in successful progress in 1850, under Mrs. 
E. G. Piatt as teacher. In the autumn of that 
year a colored family by the name of Garner came 
into the neighborhood, who had been known to 



Rev. John Todd 91 

Dr. I. D. Blanchard when in Kansas. They had 
been industrious and economical and bought their 
freedom and came to a free state to enjoy it. The 
children of this family were of course invited to 
attend both day school and Sunday school, and as 
they accepted the invitation, immediately up 
bounded the race question, which was soon prac- 
tically solved by the incendiary burning of the 
school house, the only place in the entire settlement 
where either school or meeting could be held. Such 
was the sentiment of the executive officers of the 
county, and the laws of the state too, that this 
family was required to give bonds that they would 
not become a charge to the county, before they 
could become residents of the same. I. D. Blan- 
chard and G. B. Gaston became their bondsmen. 

A case of Asiatic cholera occurred on the boat 
on which the parson and his family ascended the 
river from St. Louis in June, 1850. In July 
or August of that year there were several 
fatal cases in our settlement. Squire Lambert 
and his wife both died of it, and were interred 
by night. None who practiced total abstinence 
were attacked by it. 

In 185 1, about the time when the June rise in 
the Missouri river had filled its banks, we were 
visited with frequent heavy rains attended by sharp 
lightning and heavy thunder. The rains came 
usually in the night and often the flash of light- 



92 Reminiscences 

ning was Immediately followed by the thunder, 
quick, short, and sharp, like the explosion of a 
cannon. The streams from the bluffs swollen by 
the rains poured large quantities of water into the 
bottom, where meeting the overflow from the river 
they spread out over a large part of the lowland. It 
could not, however, be seen, on account of the tall 
green grass, which at this season completely cov- 
ered the Missouri bottom. From the roof of a 
barn on which the parson had just been working, 
there was as fine a view of the surrounding region 
as he had ever had. Northward and southward 
as far as the eye could reach was one sea of waving 
green. Eastward it was bounded by the bluffs, 
and westward by the forest along the river. The 
land of Canaan never furnished to Abraham such 
a view as this. But things seen are not always 
what they appear to be. On a bright Saturday 
afternoon in June, 185 1, our Itinerant set out on 
horseback for Linden, Missouri, to fill his appoint- 
ment at that place the next day. All was dry and 
pleasant around home and no indication of any- 
thing unusual ahead. He accordingly mounted 
his horse, and followed south along the sand ridge, 
on which the road ran for a mile or two until 
it struck across the bottom. On leaving the ridge, 
he had gone but a few rods before he found 
himself in water, four or five feet deep, with 
water nearly across the entire bottom, as the se- 



Rev. John Todd 93 

quel proved, varying in depth from a few inches 
to half way up the sides of the horse. As the 
water made traveling faster than a walk im- 
practicable, you can easily see, without much 
exercise of the imagination, that your itinerant had 
plenty of time leisurely to survey his position and 
prospects, while ploddmg his way over that not less 
than five miles of flooded bottom, perched much 
of the time like a monkey in the saddle to avoid 
the submerging of his nether extremities. The 
Missouri bottom safely passed, and Argyle's ferry 
on the Nishnabotna soon reached, that bottom too 
was found overflowed. The ferryman, however, 
promptly rowed his passenger over the river 
channel, and disembarked him in the overflowing 
waters on the other side, through which he slowly 
made his way for yet perhaps a quarter of a mile, 
directed by signals from the ferryman as the en- 
gineer is guided by signals from the brakeman. 
Once more safely on dry land the itinerant pushed 
on through McKissick's Grove toward Linden, but 
as the high waters had hindered the travel, Linden 
could not be reached that night, and so lodging and 
entertainment were kindly and generously afforded 
at Squire Thomas Farmer's in McKissick's Grove. 
The parson was ushered into a spacious, well 
finished room, with a small bright fire In the fire 
place, surmounted by a mantlepiece on which stood 
a bright lamp, and not a mosquito either seen or 



94 Reminiscences 

heard. This led him to reflect upon the com- 
parative desirableness of life on the Missouri 
bottom, and in the bluffs. In the bottom we had 
no peace of our lives in the evening, and never 
ventured to strike a light, unless prepared to take 
refuge under mosquito bars. Here he could sit by 
the burning lamp and an open fire, which recent 
rains and a cool evening rendered very agreeable, 
and nothing to annoy or molest. What a con- 
trast! How deeply he felt it! 

The sun rose bright and clear next morning. 
The parson hasted forward to Linden and High 
Creek, filled his appointments, and effected a safe 
return home on Monday; but from that time the 
Missouri river bottom has never seemed to him 
the place to locate a College, and henceforth there 
was a strong disposition to take higher ground. 
In this Brothers Gaston and Adams were of the 
same mind. 

Independence day was now near, and was ob- 
served by us in a Sabbath school picnic in Beattie's 
Grove, Lawyer Ford being orator of the day, and 
J. Todd to address the children. The former 
though present refused to speak, so that an address 
to the children, with some appropriate songs by 
them, constituted the services of that occasion. 

As Sidney had been selected as the site for the 
county seat, in the summer of 185 1, as soon as the 
road across the bottom became practicable, and 



Rev. John Todd 95 

lumber could be obtained, building on the town 
site commenced. In the after part of the summer, 
Rev. Wm. Simpson, of the M. E. church, with his 
family migrated to, and located at. Council Bluffs, 
and took charge of the Council Bluffs M. E. 
mission. In the fall Rev. G. G. Rice, of the 
American Home Missionary society, took up his 
residence at the same place with his family. 

The overflowed portions of the bottom proved 
ta be good fishing ground. Two of our young 
men went out one morning equipped with pitch- 
forks for spears, and a horse and sack to carry the 
fish. In a few hours they had caught as many 
buffalo fish, as they could carry home. They were 
able to follow them by the moving of the tops of 
the tall grass, as they wriggled their way through 
the water. But in the after part of the summer, 
as the waters began to dry up, malarial fever 
prevailed all along up and down the river. Very 
few escaped. Quinine was a common specific, and 
was prescribed by physicians, until the supply was 
exhausted. None could be had at Kanesville, St. 
Joe, or any of the towns around. Dr. Blanchard, 
as a dernier resort, and taking a hint from the 
Medical Journal, prescribed for his patients 
chloride of sodium (common salt). Three tea- 
spoonfuls were deemed a dose, and cures were 
effected thereby. 



96 Reminiscences 

As the Missouri bottom was no longer a satis- 
factory site to a number of the people of our 
settlement, various tours were taken at intervals 
during the summer, in search of a more eligible 
location. Cutler's camp on Silver Creek was 
looked over. Big Grove in Pottawattamie county 
was considered. Several points in Harrison 
county were visited and discussed. Finally the 
present site of Tabor was decided upon, and 
accordingly G. B. Gaston, S. H. Adams and John 
Todd, with their families came to this vicinity in 
April, 1852. When Rev. Wm. Simpson of the 
M. E. church, a worthy and esteemed brother, 
came to Civil Bend in the discharge of his duties, 
he came to see the writer, and in his social, fra- 
ternal manner accosted me thus: " Brother Todd, 
if you have got any Methodists among your people 
here, they belong to me." This rather relaxed 
the hope I had fondly cherished, that I might be 
able to unite in one organization, all the Christians 
of any given neighborhood. But we had no un- 
pleasant words or hard feelings. He on invitation 
consented to co-operate in a protracted meeting in 
Civil Bend in the winter of 1851-52, on the 
express condition that he should be permitted to 
say " Amen " as often and as loud as he chose. 
This privilege was very willingly granted him 
and a series of meetings was held to the edifica- 
tion of Christians and conversion of sinners. 



Rev. John Todd 97 

In coming to the vicinity of Tabor, a footing 
was obtained by Brother Gaston buying a timber 
claim of Mr. Buchler, and J. Todd buying out 
Mr. Frederick Argyle, who had a timber claim 
with two log cabins, about two miles southwest 
of Tabor. One of these cabins was fitted up for 
a school house, and in it Mrs. M. A. Todd 
taught the first school ever taught In Ross town- 
ship. In the summer of 1852 Mr. Gaston and 
Mr. Adams erected the first two houses built In 
Tabor — Mr. Gaston's situated on the southeast 
corner of Park and Orange streets, now (1891) 
occupied by Henry Starrett, and Mr. Adams' form- 
ing part of Mr. J. L. Smith's bam and woodshed. 

During the summer of 1852, Sunday school and 
public services were held under the shade of a 
basswood tree near the pastor's log cabin in fair 
weather and In the cabin in foul weather. 
There on the 12th of October of the same 
year, the Tabor Congregational church was 
formally organized, with the following members : 
Geo. B. Gaston, Maria C. Gaston, A. C. Gaston, 
Alonzo M. Gaston, Sam'l H. Adams, Caroline 
M. Adams, John Todd, and Martha A. Todd. 
Rev. G. G. Rice of Council Bluffs was present by 
Invitation, and preached on the occasion from i 
Cor. 2:5, "That your faith should not stand in 
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 
A weekly prayer meeting on Wednesday evening, 



98 Reminiscences 

a missionary concert on the first Monday evening 
of each month, and an anti-slavery concert on the 
last Monday evening of each month, were main- 
tained from the beginning — the last of these was 
kept up until emancipation by proclamation of 
President Abraham Lincoln, when a jubilee of 
praise and thanksgiving terminated its observance. 

In June, 1852, a county Washingtonian Tem- 
perance Society was organized at Sidney, which 
held quarterly meetings in the county, and was 
kept alive and running for about twenty years, 
mainly by the people of Civil Bend and Tabor. 

Having now taken higher ground, friends from 
the east began to join us. In the spring of 1853, 
Deacon Origen Cummings and family, and Abbie, 
his sister, Wm. J. Gates and family, Jesse West and 
family, John Hallam and Joseph Munsinger 
landed at Civil Bend, on the 15th day of May. 
S. R. Pearse and Jas. K. Gaston came also in 

1853. 

As the parson had brought with him the preced- 
ing spring a red cow of strong attachments to lux- 
urious living, and tenacious memory of good graz- 
ing, no sooner had the vernal showers and balmy 
breezes awakened to life and fragrance the pas- 
tures along the river, than she broke away from 
her accustomed range and set out for the " Bend," 
taking her companions with her, thus leaving her 
owner and his family on short rations. In this 



Rev. John Todd 99 

plight was the parson on the morning after the 
landing of the friends at the " Bend." According- 
ly, as he then owned no horse, he set out early that 
morning on foot, with staff in hand, to recover his 
fugitive cows. Civil Bend was twenty miles dis- 
tant, and on the Missouri bottom were several 
sloughs or ponds to be crossed, which required of 
the pedestrian the removal of boots and hose, and 
their replacement on the other side. Just as the 
parson had made one of these crossings and was 
in the act of adjusting his apparel. Deacon O. 
Cummings and wife drove up, on their way to 
Tabor to announce the arrival of their company. 
After a most cordial greeting and mutual congrat- 
ulations, the parson trudged on, recovered his 
strays, and reached home again in good season 
the same evening, having walked forty miles and 
driven his cows twenty. 

LOFC 



CHAPTER VI 
INCIDENTS BY THE WAY 

THE FIRST GRIEF 

JAMES GATES, oldest son of Wm. J. and 
Emily P. Gates, was so unwell at the time of 
their landing that they remained with him 
for a few days at Lester W. Piatt's, hoping he 
might recover. But instead of improving, he grew 
worse, died five days after their landing, and was 
brought to Tabor for burial. There was no bury- 
ing ground then agreed upon, and he was buried, 
temporarily, near where Mrs. Kempton's house 
now stands. The loss of a loved child is always 
trying to parents' hearts, but circumstances often 
add greatly to the trial. If sickness must come, 
who would not choose to be sick at home? But 
this came when they were without a home — stran- 
gers in a strange land ! They were not without 
friends, but necessarily without many of the com- 
forts they had left behind. Their prospects were 
shrouded in gloom by this bereavement. They 
came first to Tabor to bury their first-born son. 



Rev. John Todd loi 

WORTH OF HALF A DOLLAR 

Escape from the overflowed bottom to the high- 
lands around the sources of Plum Creek, leaving 
all the improvement of years behind, necessarily 
curtailed the resources of the escaping families, 
so that during the ensuing summer the parson's 
larder grew lean, and his barrel of flour failed, 
and the bill of fare became brief and simple — 
fried mush and cream for breakfast, Johnny cake 
and butter for dinner, and mush and milk for sup- 
per. This all went very well. Sleep was sweet 
and refreshing, digestion was good, parents were 
well, and children hearty and strong. But the 
meal sack became exhausted, and this were a trivial 
matter, had not the money failed first. Brother 
Gaston had so often befriended the parson that 
he was very reluctant to trouble him farther, or 
let him know his strait. Had he known, he would, 
if necessary, have generously shared his last flap- 
jack. But the petition was offered with increased 
fervor, " Give us this day our daily bread," nor 
was there any disposition to spiritualize it either. 

Just at this crisis, God sent along (the now 
sainted) Abbie Walton, who, without any earthly 
reason, gave Brother Gaston half a dollar for the 
parson. She owed him nothing, but he accepted 
it as a real godsend, as it was; and jumping 
astride Old Queen, with an empty sack but replen- 



I02 Reminiscences 

ished purse, he hasted to Squire Wright's — a mile 
or two south of Thurman — bought two bushels 
of corn, shelled it with his own hands, got it 
ground at Leeka's mill on his return, and he and 
his went in the strength of that meal many days. 
No other fifty cents ever proved so valuable to 
the parson as that fifty. Never was there a half 
dollar to him like that. It drove the howling wolf 
from the door. It bridged the yawning chasm, 
and all passed safely on their way. 

OLD QUEEN 

Since I have mentioned " Old Queen," let me 
explain. For some time after coming to Iowa 
the parson was dependent on his brethren for a 
horse to get to his appointments. Brother Gaston 
sent a letter to some friends in Obedin informing 
them of the parson's need of a horse. They, in 
the true Oberlin spirit, circulated a subscription 
paper, raised and sent about seventy dollars to 
enable him to obtain a horse. With that money. 
Queen, a clay-bank colored mare, better to ride 
than to do hard work, was bought of Lester W. 
Piatt. 

Brothers Gaston and Adams built and moved 
into their houses in the village of Tabor during 
the summer of 1852. The parson, whose house 
was the third one built, occupied his in August, 
1853. Jas. L. Smith visited Tabor in June, 1853, 



Rev. John Todd 103 

and came with his family across the state in the 
autumn of the same year, bringing with them 
Loren Hume and Wm. L. Clark. During the 
same season Darius P. Matthews and family re- 
moved from Percival to Tabor. 

From August, 1853, until November, 1854, 
public religious services were held in Brother Gas- 
ton's (Henry M. Starrett's) house, on the south- 
east corner of Orange and Park streets. From 
November 24th, 1854, till the autumn of i860 
the place of meeting was the school house on the 
northeast corner of Center and Elm streets (now 
forming part of Mr. Webb's residence). From 
i860 to 1865 the College chapel, in its original 
size and form, on the northwest corner of Center 
and Elm streets, furnished the place of meeting; 
and from 1865 for ten years, the chapel in its 
present size afforded the place of worship. 

INCIDENTS OF 1854 

The year 1854 opened Nebraska for settlement, 
and many crossed the river from Iowa and took 
claims there. There were a number of accessions 
to the people of Tabor that year. In the spring 
came Jonas Jones and family, Wm. Madison and 
family, Isaac Townsend and family, Mrs. Ruth 
V. Webster and family, and Judge Q. F. Atkins, 
of Cleveland, Ohio, father of the parson's wife, 
came along to visit his daughter and family. He 



I04 Reminiscences 

returned in a few weeks to Ohio. Egbert Avery 
and Marcus T. Spees came on foot across the state 
in the fall of 1853, and the former returned to 
Ohio and brought his xvife with him in October, 
1854, but stopped for a time at Percival. There 
were here early in 1854 also John West, M. P. 
Clark, L. A. Matthews, L. T. Matthews, O. B. 
Clark, Merrick W. Thayer and J. L. Hunter. 
Wm. R. Shepherdson was among us as carpenter 
and joiner. Jonas Jones, as requested, brought 
with him our present bell — the first that ever on 
this western slope summoned human beings to the 
place of worship, or called redeemed sinners to 
the work of praise and prayer. It was soon sus- 
pended on a temporary frame at the corner of 
Orange and Park streets and at once brought into 
service. To those from Oberlin it seenied the du- 
plicate of the Oberlin College bell, and its fa- 
miliar tones unlocked the cells of memory, and 
waked the echoes of other days. But when the 
novel sound began to penetrate the neighborhood, 
fears were expressed that it would frighten all 
the chickens in the vicinity off their roosts. 

In those days our community was about as near 
a pure democracy as is ever found. Whenever 
any project was up of public concern, a public meet- 
ing was called, and the matter deliberated upon 
in open assembly. Conclusions reached were usu- 
ally unanimous or nearly so, and each one seemed 



Rev. John Todd 105 

eager to do his part toward the general welfare. 
The work of 1854 was to build a school house. 
The people, therefore, were called together in 
February and a subscription paper started. Nine- 
teen, nearly or quite all the men in the place at 
that time, subscribed cash or work. The subscrip- 
tions ranged from five to fifty dollars, and footed 
up four hundred dollars and eighty cents — that to 
begin with. The house was built on the northeast 
corner of Center and Elm streets, where it stood 
for about twenty-five years. On its roof hung our 
bell, on a little frame, for many a day, ready to 
summon the citizens to worship, which a jolly York 
state cousin coming along assured us looked like 
a turkey on a sawbuck. During the winter of 
1853-4 Jas. L. Smith taught the first school ever 
taught in' Tabor in the northwest room in Mr. 
Starrett's house (then Mr. Gaston's). As the 
school house was completed in the autumn of 1854, 
a school was taught in it the following winter by 
the parson. When, in 1852, Deacon Cummings 
came to Tabor, he brought for the parson a trunk 
of clothing from friends in Clarksfield, Ohio, as 
far as Tipton, and for want of public conveyances 
across the state, it was left there. In November 
of 1854 the parson crossed the state with his buggy 
and procured the trunk; and although absent but 
about a fortnight, his nine months old son, sup- 
posed to be as well as usual when his father started, 



io6 Reminiscences 

was in his grave when he returned. Little David 
had sickened and died in so brief a time ! Yet who 
will say that our heavenly Father, in whose hands 
our breath is, and whose are all our ways, is any 
less a God of love? 

A committee was appointed in May of this 
year to plat the village of Tabor, but other things 
engaged public attention, and the survey was de- 
ferred till 1857. 

INCIDENTS OF 1855-6 

In June of this year the parson's wife revisited 
friends in Ohio. The parson attended the state 
association at Burlington for the first time. He 
and his wife crossed the state in an open buggy, 
she going on to Ohio, while he attended associa- 
tion. He there met Robert H. Hurlbutt on his 
way to Tabor to " look," and brought him home 
with him. L. B. Hill and L. E. Webb came out 
the same season on the same errand. Hill and 
Hurlbutt both went back to Ohio, and returned 
again in the following year, bringing their families 
and goods across the state. Mrs. Esther Hill and 
family accompanied her son, L. B. Hill, and Chas. 
Lawrence drove one of Mr. Hurlbutt's teams. 
B. F. Gardner and family came in the fall of 1855, 
and B. F. Ladd and family about the same time. 
L Hollister joined us in January, 1856, and L C. 
Lyman the same year. H. D. Ingraham appeared 



Rev. John Todd 107 

among us not far from this time, also M. C. Pearse 
and J, L. Hunter. 

At this time our connection with the outside 
world was mainly through a stage coach, which 
ran between Council Bluffs and St. Joe regularly, 
passing through Tabor daily each way, carrying 
the mail and passengers. 

Our place obtained its name in this way. When 
we asked the department at Washington for a 
postoffice, not knowing what names were already 
appropriated in our state, we sent on several, ar- 
ranged in the order in which we preferred them. 
Osceola was placed first, and some others before 
Tabor. But when the office was granted it was 
called " Tabor." We afterward learned that Osce- 
ola was the count}'^ seat of Clarke county. So our 
Httle " burg " was named Tabor. The postoffice 
was granted, and Jesse West was the first post- 
master. 

At first our prairie country was so open and the 
wind so strong that it was not deemed safe to 
build a higher than a story and a half house, and 
Jonas Jones erected the first two-story house in 
Tabor, on the northeast corner of Center and 
Orange streets, now the residence of President 
Brooks; and the posts of that were shortened after 
the timbers had been procured. 



CHAPTER VII 

KANSAS TROUBLES 

THE repeal of the Missouri compromise line, 
and the opening to settlement of the terri- 
tory west of Missouri and Iowa, soon pre- 
sented the " irrepressible conflict " — the struggle 
between freedom and slavery — in a new form.* 
Said Wm. H. Seward in the United States senate 
in 1854, " Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave 
states; since there is no escaping your challenge, 
I accept it in behalf of Freedom. We will engage 
in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and 
God give the victory to the side that is stronger in 
numbers, as it is in right." 

No sooner was it known that Kansas was open 
for settlement than hundreds from Missouri 
crossed into the territory and took claims, and held 
squatter meetings, and then returned to their 



*The following notice was found among my father's 
papers in his handwriting, and I recall hearing that those who 
attended were greeted by the proslavery rabble in a way char- 
acteristic of those times, viz., with stale eggs. J. E. T. 

ATTENTION ALL! 

A meeting of the Antislavery friends of Fremont County 
will be held in Sidney on Sat. Sep. 15, 1855, at 11 o'clock A. M. 

All interested in resisting the encroachments of American 
slavery are invited to attend. 

Addresses alternating with appropriate music may be 
expected on the occasion. 
Sidney, Sep. 1, 1855. 



Rev. John Todd 109 

homes, after adopting such resolutions as the fol- 
lowing: 

" That we will afford protection to no aboli- 
tionist as a settler of this territory. 

" That we recognize the institution of slavery, 
as already existing in this territory, and advise 
slaveholders to introduce their property as early 
as possible." 

Governor Reeder arrived in the territory in Oc- 
tober, 1854, and November 29th of the same year 
the first election was held, at which a delegate to 
Congress was chosen. At this election 1,700 il- 
legal votes were cast. On the 30th of March, 
1855, the members of the territorial legislature 
were elected. On this occasion not less than 5,000 
Missourians invaded the territory. According to 
the statement of the Congressional Committee's 
report, there were at this election 4,908 illegal 
votes cast, and of course slavery carried. 

The state of excitement in western Missouri 
may be seen from the following extract from a 
speech at St. Joe by Gen. Stringfellow (an as- 
sumed title) in 1854: 

" I tell you to mark every scoundrel among 
you who is the least tainted with abolitionism, or 
free-soilism, and exterminate him. Neither give 
nor take quarter from the d — d rascals. To those 
who have qualms of conscience as to violating 
laws, state or national, I say the time has come 



no Rem 



iniscences 



when such impositions must be disregarded, as 
your rights and property are in danger. I advise 
you, one and all, to enter every election district 
in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder and his myr- 
midons, and vote at the point of the bowie knife 
and revolver. Neither take nor give quarter, as 
the cause demands it. It is enough that the slave- 
holding interest wills it, from which there is no 
appeal." 

David R. Atchison, senator in Congress from 
Missouri, was actively urging on the " ruffians " 
by counsel, speech and pen. Blue lodges were 
formed in all the western counties in Missouri to 
help forward the cause. Organizations were 
formed in the several slave states, and companies 
of men sent forward. 

There were also free state organizations to aid 
in sending forward emigrants, the principal of 
which were " The American Settlement Com- 
pany " and " The New England Emigrant Aid 
Company." The thoroughfare into the territory 
was up the river by boat, or by private conveyance 
across the state, so that it was in the power of Mis- 
sourians to greatly annoy emigrants, and this power 
they did not fail to exercise. Emigrants from the 
north were driven back; they were tarred and 
feathered; their claims were seized; their cabins 
were burned down; they were often ordered to 
leave the territory at once, on penalty of death. 



Rev. John Todd iii 

Steamboats on the river were searched for free 
state men, and if any were found, they were forci- 
bly turned back. Men were placed in skiffs in the 
river current, without oars, and sent adrift. Fer- 
ries were watched, and free state men prevented 
from crossing into the territory. 

To determine whether any one was Yankee or 
not, he was required to say " cow," and if he said 
" keow," he could not cross. Such was the deter- 
mined hostility to free state men, that the route to 
Kansas via Missouri was barricaded against them, 
and they were obliged to seek a new way through 
the free states. 

That we may the better understand and appre- 
ciate the occurrences of 1856, let us briefly review 
the events in Kansas prior to this year. 

1. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed by 
Congress near the last of May, 1854. 

2. The first company of eastern emigrants, 
guided by Chas. Branscomb, numbering thirty, en- 
tered the territory and settled at LaAvrence in July, 
1854. 

3. Two weeks later they were joined by a sec- 
ond and larger company of sixty or seventy, with 
whom came Dr. Chas. Robinson and S. C. Pom- 
eroy. 

4. Gov. A. H. Reeder entered Kansas and 
assumed rule in October, 1854. 



112 Reminiscences 

5. Hundreds from Missouri crossed over into 
Kansas and took claims as soon as it was known 
to be open to settlement, some of whom remained, 
but many returned to Missouri, where was their 
real residence. 

6. Gen. Whitfield was elected territorial dele- 
gate to Congress, November 29, 1854, at which 
election 1,729 illegal votes were cast, which were 
about three-fifths of the whole number. • (See 
report of the Congressional Investigating Com- 
mittee.) 

7. The election for territorial legislature oc- 
curred March 30, 1855, when 4,908 illegal votes 
were cast, or two-thirds of all. Many of the 
members elected were Missourians, and never had 
any legal residence in the territory, and some of 
them were refused certificates of election by Gov. 
Reeder, who in consequence became unpopular and 
was superseded by Wilson Shannon in the sum- 
mer of 1855. 

8. The bogus legislature, so called because 
illegally elected, held its first session in July, 1855, 
and enacted a very stringent pro-slavery code of 
laws for the territory. The free state settlers 
elected a legislature early in September, 1855, 
which met at Topeka on the 19th, adopted a dec- 
laration of rights, and provided for the election of 
delegates to Congress, on the 2d Tuesday of Oc- 
tober, 1855. Ex-Governor Reeder was nominated 



ReiK John Todd 113 

as a delegate to Congress, and accepted the nomi- 
nation in a speech on the occasion. Chas, Robin- 
son was recognized by the free state organization 
as governor. 

At this time, the United States government re- 
cognized the bogus legislature and their laws as au- 
thoritative. The government insisted on obedience 
to the same. The United States marshal, with 
United States troops at his back, and as many 
thousands of Missourians as he might think proper 
to employ as a posse, eagerly sought to enforce 
obedience. Thus all the governmental power was 
on the side of the pro-slaver}' ruffians. Soon 
charges were trumped up against the leading free 
state men, and papers issued for their arrest, and 
placed in the hands of the United States marshal 
to be served. Thus the pro-slavery party was 
shielded by the power of the general government, 
while the free state men were exposed to wrong 
and abuse without any redress. 

The free state constitutional convention assem- 
bled at Topeka on the 23d of October, 1855, and 
proceeded to form a state constitution preparatory 
to applying for admission to the Union. Novem- 
ber 21, 1855, Dow, a free state settler at Hickory 
Point, was brutally shot by a ruffian named Cole- 
man. Branson, with whom Dow had lived, was 
arrested shortly after by Missouri ruffians, taken 
from his bed at dead of night, and carried off on 



114 Reminiscences 

a trumped-up charge, but taken from his captors 
by free state friends. The United States marshal, 
Jones, of Missouri, had thought to take Branson 
into Lawrence to induce the people of that place 
to forcibly release him and thus afford a pretext 
for destroying Lawrence, the stronghold of the 
free state cause. About the last of November or 
first of December, Lawrence was besieged by 1,500 
or 2,000 " border ruffians " for a week or two. 
The ruffians were eager to destroy Lawrence, but 
feared to do so without a sufficient pretext. Gov- 
ernor Shannon on coming to Lawrence saw his 
mistake. The free state men were armed in self 
defense — a conceded right. The governor saw 
they were not the lawless cut-throats their enemies 
had represented them to be. Governor Robinson 
and General Lane were called upon to protect the 
people in their rights, and the governor recognized 
them as the territorial militia and they acted as 
such under his command. The " border niffians " 
were determined to drive out the free state settlers, 
and the free state men were as fully determined 
not to be driven out, so that a very unsatisfactory 
state of things existed in the territory. Human 
life and property were very insecure, murders were 
frequent, houses were robbed and burned. By a 
shrewd device, Capt. John Brown, as a govern- 
ment surveyor, entered the camp of the enemy and 
learned their plans for murdering the Browns and 



Rev. John Todd 115 

others who were obnoxious to them. He immedi- 
ately informed the parties thus devoted to death, 
and took measures to prevent the carrying out of 
the plan, by taking the initiative. On the night of 
the 24th of May, 1856, the three Doyles, Wilkin- 
son and Sherman were slain. 

About May 10, 1856, Gov. Chas. Robinson 
and wife started east, by boat down the river. At 
Lexington, Mo., they were violently and illegally 
seized by a mob of Missourians. He was held 
as a prisoner, while his estimable wife was per- 
mitted to go on her way. Shortly after Gov. 
Chas. Robinson left Lawrence, ex-Governor Reeder 
was also induced to leave. He made his escape 
from his enemies by going down the river in the 
disguise of a boatman. 

Companies of emigrants from Illinois, travel- 
ing in their own wagons through northern Mis- 
souri, were turned back from guarded ferries 
on the Missouri, and compelled to retrace 
their course. The blockade of the river ren- 
dered it necessary to seek some other way of 
ingress into the territory. Accordingly in the fore- 
part of the summer of 1856, in May or June, a 
small company, led by Dr. Howe, of the blind 
institution in Boston, coming from Kansas across 
the country via Nebraska City, made their appear- 
ance in Tabor. This, I think, was the beginning 
of the travel of free state men through Tabor. 



Ii6 Reminiscences 

This company, which was engaged in locating a 
road for free state men, were anxious to find 
Colonel Dickey with a company from the east, 
whom they were expecting to meet in this vicin- 
ity. Strangers as they were, and in need of 
a guide, the parson volunteered to escort 
them to White Cloud. Leaving Tabor a lit- 
tle before dark in the evening, we found Colonel 
Dickey about lo o'clock p. m. at the residence 
of Mr. Hargan in White Cloud. From this time 
onward through that season. Tabor, being the near- 
est point to Kansas, where all the people were in 
full sympathy with the free state movement, was 
made a place of deposit for military and commis- 
sary stores. Our latchstrings were always out, and 
much of the time our houses, and granaries, and 
hay mows were occupied. Provisions were plenty 
and free, and without price. Persons were passing 
through almost daily, alone or in companies. Some 
noted personages were among the number — Rev. 
Bodwell, afterward pastor in Topeka; Rev. Par- 
sons, a home m.issionary; T. W. Higginson, after- 
ward colonel of a colored regiment; Dr. Cutter 
and wife, author of Cutter's Physiology, so much 
used in our common schools; S. C. Pomeroy and 
James H. Lane, senators from Kansas after its 
admission to the Union as a state. Capt. John 
Brown was here repeatedly for a brief time, and 
a number of colonels, captains, majors, etc., etc. 



Rev. John Todd 117 

April 21, 1856, a Republican political organi- 
zation was formed under the leadership of Richard 
Baxter Foster, then employed in running a steam 
saw mill in the Missouri bottoms, afterward 
an officer in a colored regiment in the Rebellion, 
and since then an efficient and successful Congre- 
gational minister in Kansas and Colorado. This 
was the beginning of Republicanism in Tabor. 

We have already seen that Lawrence was be- 
sieged in the early part of December for ten days 
or more by fifteen hundred or two thousand pro- 
slavery Missourians, as a United States marshal's 
posse, to serv^e arrests on citizens of that place. 
They sought a pretext to destroy the place, but 
were thwarted and disbanded, through the action 
of Governor Shannon, the people of Lawrence, 
through their leaders, promising submission to the 
lawfully constituted authorities of the territory. 
But the free state settlers must be driven out if 
slavery would succeed, and hostilities were kept 
up. Murders were still being committed by both 
parties on each other. A very unsettled and un- 
safe state of society existed. Hundreds of " border 
ruffians," well armed, with four pieces of artilleiy, 
led by United States Marshal Jones, surrounded 
Lawrence, served writs on a number of citizens 
without resistance, then demanded that all the 
cannon and Sharps rifles be given up. The can- 
non were surrendered — one 12-pounder brass can- 



Ii8 Reminiscences 

non and four i -pound breech loading guns. The 
Sharps rifles could not be delivered up ; they were 
private property. When they had disarmed the 
citizens, they then brought their forces into the 
city, destroyed the printing presses of the two 
free state papers, battered the brick free state hotel 
with cannon, and burnt it to ashes. In addition, 
private houses were broken into, and money and 
valuables carried off. Thus the ruilians vented 
their hatred on the people of Lawrence on the 
2 1 St of May, 1856. Because Gen. Jas. H. Lane 
and Gov. Chas, Robinson and the committee of 
safety wouldn't fight, Captain Brown left Law- 
rence to its fate. He was not there to witness its 
sacking. After this onslaught upon Lawrence, 
Colonel Eldridge, the proprietor of the Free State 
hotel, passed through Tabor on his way to New 
England for reinforcements. Major Searles also 
was at Mr. Gaston's some time, in charge of stores 
deposited there. 

About the end of May, Capt. H. Clay Pate, a 
Virginian, set out from Westport, Mo., with an 
armed force for the avowed purpose of arresting 
" Old Brown." While near Ossawatomie, he took 
John Brown, Jr., and Jason, his brother, prisoners, 
while quietly at work, and carried them off, cruelly 
treating them, and afterward transferring them 
to the care of the United States forces. June 2d 
the battle of Black Jack was fought, and Captain 



Rev. John Todd 119 

Pate, with twenty-one men, was captured by Cap- 
tain Brown. On the 7th one hundred and seventy 
of Whitfield's men, led by Reid, who had prom- 
ised to disperse, sacked Ossawatomle. The free 
state legislature met at Topeka on the 4th of July, 
1856, and was forcibly dispersed by Colonel Sum- 
ner, at the head of a troop of the United States 
army, acting under orders of the general govern- 
ment. 

In consequence of hostilities existing in Kansas, 
and not knowing how soon they might extend to 
the neighboring states, the people of Tabor called 
a citizens' meeting, and organized a military com- 
pany, of which G. B. Gaston was chosen captain, 
Mortimer P. Clark first lieutenant, and E. S. Hill 
second lieutenant. A committee was appointed to 
apply to the state authorities for arms, and also 
to procure music for the company. 

KANSAS TROUBLES IN 1856 

During the summer of 1856, General Lane was 
repeatedly in Tabor. The first time he was here 
for two or three weeks " incog." He addressed 
the citizens once or twice in the school house, on 
Kansas matters, and on politics. He came in and 
spoke and then retired without the people gener- 
ally knowing where he had gone. He bought a 
fine cream colored horse of Robert H. Hurlbutt, 
that was an uncommonly fast walker, on which he 



120 Reminiscences 

rode through the wars of Kansas. He entered 
Kansas early in August, with a company of emi- 
grants, by way of Tabor. Also Captain Brown, 
who had brought a sick son and a wounded son-in- 
law up to Tabor for treatment and safety, returned 
to Lawrence with Lane. So prominent a part did 
General Lane and Captain Brown take in military 
operations, in protecting free state men and pun- 
ishing " border ruffians," that they became espe- 
cially obnoxious to the general government and 
all their appointees in the territory. The federal 
troops were employed to disperse their forces and 
arrest the commanders. On one occasion they 
were reconnoitering in the northern part of the 
territory toward the Nebraska line, to intercept 
General Lane, who was reported to be coming in 
with an armed force, when the general pushed for- 
ward in advance of his company, artfully disguised 
himself as a Mexican " greaser," joined the crowd, 
and aided in searching for himself, without being 
detected, while his company under the lead of an- 
other, by forced marches, successfully evaded their 
pursuers and safely reached their destination. 

Rumors reached us about midsummer that five 
hundred men were camped on the north line to 
prevent free state men from entering the territory. 
Three brothers, Enoch, Everett and Luther, whose 
surname was Piatt, from Minden, 111., had come 
on and were by these rumors deterred from going 



Rev. John Todd 121 

farther, until a sufficient number of emigrants could 
collect to challenge respect and force their way 
into the territory. These were a fine type of emi- 
grants, intelligent, active and ready to do every 
good work. The parson was then building his 
barn and they helped to enclose it and put on the 
roof. Tuther, the youngest, had a violin which he 
was fond of playing, and he gathered in the chil- 
dren of the community and taught them to sing, 
and entertained them with music and addresses. 
Since then he has been promoted to the office of 
Congregational State Sunday School Secretary for 
Kansas. 

Emigrants kept coming, and tents were pitched, 
and teams were grazing here and there all along 
on the green prairie, in the valley down by the old 
mill, and in the timber by John Rhodes'. Mr. 
Gaston's house was a kind of headquarters, and 
as many stopped there to recruit, they were over- 
run with company. Let me here quote from Mrs. 
Gaston's own statement: 

" That summer and autumn our houses, before 
too full, were much overfilled and our comforts 
shared with those passing to and from Kansas to 
secure it to Freedom. When houses would hold no 
more, woodsheds were temporized for bedrooms, 
where the sick and dying were cared for. Barns 
also were fixed for sleeping rooms. Every place 
where a bed could be put or a blanket thrown down 



122 Reminiscences 

was at once so occupied. There were comers and 
goers all times of day or night — meals at all hours 
— many free hotels, perhaps entertaining angels 
unawares. After battles they were here for rest — 
before for preparation. General Lane once stayed 
three weeks secretly while it was reported abroad 
that he was back in Indiana for recruits and sup- 
plies, which came ere long, consisting of all kinds 
of provisions. Sharps rifles, powder and lead. A 
cannon packed in corn made its way through the 
enemy's lines, and ammunition of all kinds, in 
clothing and kitchen furniture, etc., etc. Our cel- 
lars contained barrels of powder and boxes of 
rifles. Often our chairs, tables, beds and such 
places were covered with what weapons every one 
carried about him, so that if one needed and got 
time to rest a little in the day time, we had to 
remove the Kansas furniture, or rest with loaded 
revolvers, cartridge boxes and bowie knives piled 
around them, and boxes of swords under the bed. 
Were not our houses overfilled? " 

A Captain Chambry from Indiana came on with 
a company of fine young men, who had been en- 
trusted to his care by their parents. He was an 
intelligent Christian reformer, an advocate of tem- 
perance and freedom, one who practiced as he 
taught. 

As it was thought unsafe to go on without a 
considerable force, a call was sent out to the friends 



Rev. John Todd 123 

of freedom around, inviting all who were willing 
to assemble and form an escort, to come to Tabor. 
Although our country had then few people in it, 
a good many responded to the call and quite a 
number of the young men of Tabor volunteered to 
go, and went. 1 he parson proposed to be one to 
see them through the lines, but a pair of spurs 
was the only part of an outfit he had procured, 
when information came assuring us that the way 
was open and emigrants could safely pass in. The 
gathered host then moved on. But the morning 
of their departure was overshadowed with gloom 
on account of a very sad accident. Among those 
who responded to the call was a son of the pastor 
of the Congregational church at Lewis and a son 
of one of the deacons of the same church — Leang 

Afa Hitchcock and Chapman. They had 

camped with others down by the mill, three-quar- 
ters of a mile from Tabor toward Thurman, and 
as the caravan started in the morning they, in boy- 
ish glee, ran ahead of the teams, brandishing their 
weapons and sportively showing fight. At the 
crossing of Plum Creek, one mile and a half from 
Tabor, as the road then ran, Chapman, holding 
in hand a pistol supposed to be unloaded, play- 
fully aimed it at Hitchcock and pulled the trigger. 
It went off and Hitchcock fell, and in a few min- 
utes expired. He was the oldest son of Rev. Geo. 
B. Hitchcock, of Lewis, in Cass county, Iowa. 



124 Reminiscences 

His father, from his deep interest in Christian 
missions to China, named him Leang Afa, after 
the name of the first Chinese convert. The corpse 
was taken to the residence of James L. Smith, and 
there prepared to be conveyed to his parents at 
Lewis. But to lighten the shock, if possible, the 
parson went ahead on horseback to break the sad 
tidings to the stricken family before the arrival 
of the corpse. He set out on horseback as the 
dusk of evening came on, rode all night, break- 
fasted at a farm house and reached Mr. Hitch- 
cock's (a distance of fifty miles or more) about 
9 o'clock in the morning. He had thought to 
break the news to the father first, but as he was 
over in the village half a mile distant he dared 
not go in search of him, lest in his absence the 
bearers should arrive with the body and find the 
family wholly unprepared. The mother and grown 
sister of the deceased were the only persons to 
whom he could divulge the matter. They were 
busy at work, and as the sister went out a few 
rods from the door to hang out clothes, he fol- 
lowed her, and there broke to her the news, 
at the same time endeavoring to keep her quiet; 
but she no sooner got the idea than she ran into the 
house wringing her hands and screaming at the 
top of her voice, " Leang is dead ! Leang is dead ! 
Oh, ma; Leang is dead! " The mother shrieked 
and joined in the outcry. Both were frantic and 



Rev. John Todd 125 

uncontrollable. Soon the father returned, and hav- 
ing created an excitement he could not allay, the 
parson met him at the gate and Informed him of 
Leang's death. He was deeply moved, but re- 
pressed his feelings. When Mrs. Hitchcock 
rushed out to meet him, screaming, " Leang Is 
dead! " he tried to still her by saying, " My dear, 
God always does right." Such a scene may I never 
be called to witness again ! From It Mrs. Hitch- 
cock never seemed to wholly recover. A shadow 
appeared to rest on the household ever after. 

The death by accident of young Mr. Hitchcock 
occurred about the tenth of September, 1856. The 
host, whose numbers had been accumulating for 
weeks, and embraced the Platts from Mendon, 111., 
Captain Chambry and his company from Indiana, 
Rev. Parsons of Maine and his followers, together 
with a number from southwest Iowa, Including the 
following from Tabor: H. D. Ingraham, J. K, 
Gaston, I. Holllster, Jas. Clark, and R. B. Foster, 
all moved on, and scarcely a week passed before 
we learned that Captain Chambry fell mortally 
wounded In the capture of Ft. Titus, a log cabin 
in which the ruffians had taken refuge. In the 
plan of attack upon the fort, the captain had a 
part assigned him. In the performance of which, 
with more courage than discretion, he rode up In 
front and was shot down. But the fort was taken, 
and R. B. Foster exhibited In Tabor a short time 



126 Reminiscences 

afterward the sword of Colonel Titus, kept as a 
trophy. A colored woman, who afterward passed 
through here on the U. G. R. R., ticketed for 
Queen Victoria's dominions, informed us that she, 
as the property of Colonel Titus, was in the fort 
at the time of the attack and that a cannon ball 
struck a trunk on which she was sitting, going in 
at one end and out at the other. With such mis- 
siles flying around them, they soon concluded to 
raise the white flag. 

The company that came with Rev. Mr. Parsons 
of Maine camped west of Plum Creek on the hill- 
side, which was then covered with timber, and only 
a few rods beyond the bridge, where Leang Hitch- 
cock was accidentally shot. There the people of 
Tabor worshiped with them in the grove on Sun- 
day, August 31, 1856, when the parson preached 
from Num. 14:8, " If the Lord delight in us, then 
He will bring us into this land and give it us, a 
land which floweth with milk and honey." 

On the 13th of September, 1856, Gen. Jas. H. 
Lane, with an army of seventy-five or eighty men, 
drove an armed force of the ruffians into some log 
cabins at Hickory Point, which from their struc- 
ture afforded protection against even Sharps rifles 
and from their elevated position gave a command- 
ing view of the surrounding country. Aware that 
their assailants had no cannon, the besieged defi- 
antly raised a flag inscribed, " No surrender." This 



Rev. John Todd 127 

challenge was too bold and daring to pass unac- 
cepted. So General Lane immediately despatched 
a messenger to Lawrence for a camion and rein- 
forcements, with orders to come by way of Topeka, 
and then retired several miles west to camp for the 
night by a spring. On reaching his camping 
ground a copy of the inaugural of Governor Geary, 
who had just arrived in the territory, was handed 
him. Being satisfied, from the address, of the 
good intentions of the new governor, Lane dis- 
banded his forces, countermanded his call for can- 
non and reinforcements, and struck out for the 
north and Iowa. At Nemaha in Nebraska he met 
Redpath's caravan of free state men on the 20th 
of September, and later in the month reached 
Tabor with fifty mounted men, claiming that they 
had left the territory to give the new governor a 
chance to show his hand or indicate his policy, with- 
out being biased or in any way impeded by their 
presence. These with their horses were divided 
around among the people of Tabor, who were 
then few in number and limited in resources but 
of large hearts and open hands and fully sympa- 
thized with the friends of freedom. The parson's 
barn was now enclosed, the basement still open 
to the south, and no mangers provided. There 
fifteen or twenty of the horses — as many as could 
be accommodated in a space 24 by 28 feet — were 
quartered. The length of their stay was deter- 



128 Reminiscences 

mined by the news received from the territory. 
While here they practiced cavalry drill on the 
public square. General Lane had arranged with 
Jas. L. Smith on the 29th of September for the 
keeping of six horses, purposing himself to go east, 
when news received from Kansas caused them all 
to leave in the night and return to the territory', 
as suddenly as they came. Redpath's caravan, 
which left Tabor about the loth of September, and 
met Lane's company of mounted men at Nemaha 
on the 20th of the same month, moved on slowly, 
and being informed that the government forces 
were near the border, for the purpose of inter- 
cepting and disarming them, they buried a cannon 
and cannon carriage in the ground, and by forced 
marches evaded the government troops, reached 
Topeka in safety, and delivered their free state 
stores. 

To return in our story to Hickory Point: The 
countermanding orders of General Lane, given on 
Saturday evening, September 13th, on his depart- 
ure for the north, failed to reach Colonel Harvey, 
who left Lawrence with a cannon and reinforce- 
ments that same night about 10 o'clock and reached 
Hickory Point on Sunday, the 14th, at 2 p. m. 
Failing to make any satisfactory arrangements 
with the besieged ruffians, Colonel Harvey opened 
his battery upon them with such effect that they 
soon came to terms and agreed to leave the terri- 



Rev. John Todd 129 

tory if Colonel Harvey would graciously permit 
them to do so, which reasonable request, it Is hardly 
necessary to say, was granted. 

On this same Sabbath day, September 14th, 
while Colonel Harvey was at Hickory Point with 
a force of one hundred and fifty men reducing the 
fortress, an army of border ruffians, variously re- 
ported as numbering from one thousand five hun- 
dred to three thousand, were at Franklin, five miles 
southeast of Lawrence, on their way to attack and 
wipe out Lawrence. Captain Brown had been up 
to Topeka and stopped at Lawrence over the Sab- 
bath on his way home. The rumors at first gained 
little credence. The cry of "wolf! wolf!" had 
been heard too often to create much excitement or 
awaken much alarm. But after a time the forces 
of the ruffians came in sight, their banners flying 
and drums beating. Then a leader was in demand 
and Captain Brown was soon called to take that 
position — a position which he filled so well that 
when the ruffian hosts came within Sharps rifle 
range they were opened upon and driven back and 
Lawrence was once more delivered. No sooner 
had the ruffians left Franklin than Captain Brown 
with four sons started for the east, by way of Ne- 
braska and Tabor. As it had become known that 
another large company of emigrants was expected 
soon from the east, several companies of cavalry 
and artillery marched north to arrest them. Cap- 



130 Reminiscences 

tain Brown, disguised as a surveyor, went with 
them, camping with them every night. He was 
sick and traveled slowly, having a light wagon 
with a cow tied behind it, and a kit of surveyor's 
implements in sight. He passed thus unmolested 
and unsuspected, although the officer who led the 
force had a writ for his arrest. The young men 
who went to Kansas with Redpath were gone about 
six weeks, and on their return traveled part of 
the way in company with Captain Brown. They 
reached Tabor late in October. As might be ex- 
pected, many of the emigrants from the north grew 
tired of the privations and hardships and perils 
to which they were exposed, and especially the fear 
for their lives, and left the territory that year. 

The writer has already stated that after the 
burning of the Free State hotel in Lawrence, May 
21, 1856, Colonel Eldridge, its proprietor, passed 
through Tabor eastward for reinforcements. He 
returned from the east in October, with a train of 
18 or 20 covered wagons, a mounted cannon, and 
a company of about 200 persons, including among 
others, a family from Clarksfield, Ohio. One 
Wednesday afternoon in October as the sun was 
descending the western sky and the shadows of 
evening were rapidly lengthening, a covered wagon 
came in sight as it ascended the hill by L. A. 
Matthews' as the road then ran, closely followed 
by a score of others. They proceeded directly to 



Rev. John Todd 131 

the southwest corner of the public square, where 
they proceeded to pitch their tents. It must be 
remembered that there was not a tree then on the 
public square, nor any fence around it. They 
camped in front of the parson's gate, placing the 
mounted cannon in the center, and hoisting on it 
the stars and stripes. The 18 covered wagons 
were arranged in a circle, around the national 
banner. Outside the wagons was pitched a circle 
of tents, and outside the tents campfires were built, 
and still outside of the fires were placed armed 
sentinels who challenged us as we passed by to 
prayer meeting, "Who goes there?" This 
seemed a little more warlike than anything we had 
ever got into. On the next day about 200 men 
drilled on the public square, report of which was 
carried by the passengers in the stage coach to 
St. Joe, only the numbers were multiplied tenfold 
— the 200 had become 2,000. 

General Lane was here at this time, and there 
seemed to be no lack of colonels, and majors, and 
captains, and titled military officers. There was 
not the best feeling as it appeared, among the free 
state men. Most of them had come from the 
distant east. They had been promised Sharps 
rifles, as they claimed, and they were eager to 
get them. They had been promised them when 
they would get to Albany, then when they would 
reach Cleveland, and again when they reached 



132 Reminiscences 

Chicago, and next when they got to Tabor, and 
now that they had arrived in Tabor they wanted 
them, insisted on having them, and declared they 
would go no farther, until they obtained them. 
But the rifles were not here, and could not be 
furnished. It was then an object to pacify the 
men, and prevail on them to go forward. For this 
purpose General Lane mounted the cannon car- 
riage, and calling the men around him, addressed 
them somewhat as follows : " Comrades — a good 
soldier always grumbles. I know you have borne 
much already, since you left your homes. You have 
not always been fed on dainties, nor have you 
slept on down. You have endured with fortitude 
the perils, inconveniences, and privations of the 
way as good soldiers. Now you want Sharps 
rifles. Well, let me tell you, a Sharps rifle is a 
good weapon to use on an enemy at a distance, 
but it is good for nothing in a close encounter. 
If you come into a close fight (and I hope to 
God you may), a Sharps rifle is worthless. It 
is far inferior to a weapon with a bayonet. If 
I had my choice of arms, I would not arm more 
than one in ten with a Sharps rifle. As the arms 
you want are not here, I hope you will conclude 
to go on and see us through." More was said, 
but this much I can recall. The men went on to 
Kansas. After a day or two of rest, the company 
of Colonel Eldridge passed on to the territory. 



Rev. John Todd 133 

After defending Lawrence against a horde of 
Missourians on the 14th of September, 1856, 
" John Brown, with four sons, left Lawrence for 
the east by way of Nebraska territory " and Tabor, 
Iowa. Traveling slowly on account of being sick, 
they did not reach the latter place until October, 
and remained here several weeks. John Brown 
reached Chicago late in November, and Albany, 
N. Y., In December. 

Later in the season, in October or November, 
stores of arms and ammunition were brought on 
and stowed in barns, corncribs, cellars, etc. 
The parson had one brass cannon on his hay mow, 
and another on wheels in his wagon shed. He 
had also boxes of clothing, boxes of ammunition, 
boxes of muskets, boxes of sabres, and twenty boxes 
of Sharps rifles stowed away in the cellar all 
winter. On some public occasion some of our boys 
hauled the mounted cannon out on the public 
square and fired a few rounds to try it. On the 
4th of July, 1858, the friends at Sidney requested 
the use of the cannon to emphasize the toasts of 
the occasion. The cannon went and the people of 
Tabor united with the people of Sidney in the 
celebration of the day. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE OPENING OF THE UNDER- 
GROUND R. R. 

FIRST PASSENGERS ON THE U. G. R. R. VIA TABOR 

ON THE evening of the 4th of July, 1854, 
there came into our quiet village a travel- 
er with his family and several colored 
people, three covered wagons and a carriage. The 
father, mother and daughter rode in the carriage. 
They were on their way from Mississippi to Salt 
Lake and would have crossed the river at Nebraska 
City, as their most direct route, but, on account of 
the rush of emigration, and the freighting across 
the plains, the ferry at that point was crowded, and 
to avoid the crowd this company had passed on, 
intending to cross higher up. They camped for 
the night on the west side of Main street, and 
about midway between Elm and Orange streets. 
There were six slaves and two of them got water 
from Jesse West's well, near which the first hotel 
in Tabor was then in process of building. Whether 
stimulated excessively on America's natal day by 
large draughts of freedom and independence, or 
whether the circumstances conspired to such a re- 



Rev. John Todd 135 

suit, or both prompted the deed, certain It is that the 
builders found an interview with the darkies and 
learned that they were slaves ; that five of the six, a 
father, mother and tv\'0 children, with another man, 
were anxious to escape from slavery, but that the 
other slave woman didn't want to leave her master 
and couldn't safely be trusted with their plans. 
Arrangements were then made, the five desirous to 
go were met at the corner by the hotel in the night 
and conducted to and across the Nishnabotna and 
concealed in the bushes. All this was effected by 
the first faint glimmering of daylight in the eastern 
sky. S. H. Adams, John Hallam, Jas. K. Gaston 
and Irish Henry were the conductors on this train. 
Mr. G. B. Gaston, to avoid the appearance of evil, 
took some ladies in a buggy and made a visit at 
C. W. Tolles', on Silver Creek, where arrange- 
ments were made to care for the fugitives ; and in 
a day or two, with Cephas Case and Wm. L. Clark 
for conductors, and an old horse to carry such as 
could not walk, they made their way to a settlement 
of Quakers in the vicinity of the Des Moines 
river, and there leaving them in safe hands they re- 
turned to Tabor. On their way out they had some 
narrow escapes, but were delivered from all their 
foes. 

The fugitives reached the Queen's dominions 
in safety, but their master, who we were credibly 
informed was a Mormon elder, on his way from 



136 Reminiscences 

Mississippi to Salt Lake, was not willing to let 
his slave property escape, without at least an effort 
to recover it. On rising in the morning after the 
exodus, there was an unusual stillness about the 
camp. No one was astir. Fires were not lighted. 
The teams were uncared for, nor was breakfast 
being prepared. All seemed at a standstill. He 
stepped out, and looked in all directions, but saw 
no trace of the missing slaves. The reputation 
of the people of Tabor, as being in sympathy with 
fleeing fugitives, was too well known to admit of 
his taking counsel with them in this emergency. 
But in a neighborhood a few miles south of Tabor 
sympathizing "friends were found. The news was 
soon heralded abroad. The dastardly deed was 
denounced, and the Taborites anathematized. A 
goodly number of pro-slavery sympathizers came 
together. A general slave hunt was planned and 
the groves, and thickets, and tall grass, and timber 
bordering both sides of the Nishnabotna river — 
every place where they might possibly be concealed 
was carefully searched. But one of those, who 
aided in the search, was at heart a friend of the 
fugitives, and was careful himself to do the search- 
ing around where he knew they were hid, and 
just as careful to ?wt find them. As I have already 
stated, new conductors, both of whom passed to 
their reward many years ago, took charge of the 
train. When they had proceeded some distance 



Rev. John Todd 137 

on their way they met a man on horseback of whom 
they inquired the way to Quincy. He answered 
them civilly, but eyed them closely and passed on, 
and, as was afterward ascertained, went and re- 
ported what he had heard and seen to the master, 
who at once hastened forward to Quincy and, 
when failing to find them there, posted printed 
handbills in every direction to intercept them if 
possible, but without success. The fact was, the 
conductors suspecting the man they had met to be 
untrustworthy, switched off to Lewis instead of 
going to Quincy, and thus foiled their pursuers. 
At Lewis they had some trouble from pro-slavery 
men, but out of it all the Lord delivered them. 
They ran the gauntlet of pro-slavery servility 
through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, and 
found freedom in Queen Victoria's land. 

Of all the thousands of Oberlin students, I never 
knew one who studied there long, who did not go 
out from there a thorough abolitionist. John H. 
Byrd, a classmate at Oberlin of the pastor's wife, 
a native of Vermont, reared in the freedom-loving 
principles of the Friends, was pastor of a little 
Congregational church in Atchison, Kansas, during 
the troubles there. A slave woman, who longed 
for freedom, applied to him for counsel and aid, 
as she had set out to obtain it. She was directed 
to Tabor, and arrived here in the early part of 
April, 1857. Conductors on the Underground R. 



138 R 



emimscences 



R. vei7 soon learned, that It was conducive to safe- 
ty and success to forward all passengers with 
promptness and despatch. As this colored woman 
made her appearance just before the annual meet- 
ing of the Council Bluffs Association, which met 
this year at Council Bluffs, it was arranged that 
the parson should take the woman along, as he 
went to the Association, as far as Deacon D. 
Briggs' and get Brother Geo. B. Hitchcock, 
of Lewis, to come by Deacon Briggs', and take 
her home with him, as he returned from the 
Association. But Brother Hitchcock could 
not return by Dea. Briggs', and so the parson 
returned home from the Association and with 
his buggy took the fugitive, cloaked, veiled, 
and gloved, out to Lewis, no one mistrust- 
ing that she was other than his wife. Other 
conductors passed her on from Lewis to the next 
station. 

Nuckolls' slaves of Nebraska city 

When Kansas and Nebraska were opened for 
settlement in 1854, and the strife for the former 
was hot, the " ruffians " were wont to say to the 
free state men: "Why don't you go to Ne- 
braska? We want Kansas, and you may have 
Nebraska." But slave holders went also into 
Nebraska with their slaves, and seemed quite wil- 
ling to seize and hold that, too, for slavery. 



Rev. John Todd 139 

Among the slave holders in Nebraska was a 
Mr. Nuckolls, a prominent merchant in Nebraska 
City, who owned and held in that place two female 
slaves. While abolitionists were not accustomed 
to entice or coax slaves to leave their masters, yet 
when they had sense enough to want freedom, and 
grit enough to strike out, and attempt to get it, 
abolitionists always stood ready to help the slave, 
rather than the master. 

A mulatto of considerable shrewdness and a deal 
of experience in the world for one of his years, 
by the name of John Williamson, about that time 
did some trading back and forth across the 
Missouri river, in a small way, buying butter and 
eggs, etc., of the farmers and selling cheap jewelry, 
and trinkets of one kind and another. It was 
through him, as I have always understood, that 
Mr. Nuckolls' slaves were brought across the river. 
When once on this side there were plenty ready 
to help them on their way. One morning in De- 
cember, 1858, about dayhght. Dr. Ira D. Blan- 
chard brought them into Tabor from the west. 
Consultation was had with a few of the friends 
and they were placed at Mr. Ladd's for the 
day. As it was considered unsafe to travel 
by daylight, and no less so to hold them, 
preparation was made through the day to start 
them on their way at evening. When it was 
known at Nebraska City that the girls were gone, 



140 Reminiscences 

there was a stir in Mr. Nuckolls' household. Tel- 
egraphs and telephones were not in operation then 
as now. But Mr. Nuckolls had a brother, a 
merchant, in Glenwood and two brothers-in-law, 
who sold goods in Sidney. Messengers were 
accordingly despatched to them and their aid so- 
licited. Detectives were placed at the bridges across 
Silver Creek, and the Nishnabotna river, but some- 
how, as a good Providence would have it, they 
failed to intercept the train. It was a dismal, dark 
night — moonless, cloudy and misty. A covered 
wagon was provided, but the driver could neither 
see the road, nor his horses. There were no fences 
to keep travelers in the way. Deacon O. Cum- 
mings led the way with a lantern through the 
Egyptian darkness. Silver Creek was crossed near 
its mouth and the river at White Cloud without 
any obstruction or opposition, which fact can only 
be accounted for on the supposition that the detec- 
tives failed to reach the bridges until after the 
train had passed. 

The slaves escaped, and were never captured. 
They stopped for a time in Chicago among their 
colored friends, and were pursued to that point. 
But they had timely warning, and hastily took 
refuge to the Queen's dominions. To resume our 
narrative : Having searched in Tabor and vicinity 
and watched the crossings of Silver Creek and the 
Nishnabotna in vain, Mr. Nuckolls returned to 



Rev. John Todd 141 

Percival to make a more thorough search, de- 
claring that he knew they had not gone beyond 
there. Accordingly a company of men from 
Nebraska City took it upon themselves to search 
the homes of the people without authority. They 
went into houses and around the premises, prying 
into things and places that were private and doing 
things which they had no right to do. The citizens 
remonstrated, protested, and warmly denounced 
such conduct. Reuben Williams being very bold, 
decided and outspoken, was set upon by Mr. 
Nuckolls who rode up to him and struck him a 
heavy blow over the head, which stunned and dis- 
abled him, producing deafness from which he never 
recovered. Complaint was made before the proper 
officers, and Nuckolls was arrested. The prelim- 
inaries having been taken, the next day was set for 
trial and the parties retired for the night to pre- 
pare for the same. Mr. Nuckolls and his followers 
crossed over to Nebraska City, The people of 
Percival, fearing the return of a larger party from 
that place on the morrow, despatched E. Avery, 
then a resident of Percival, to Tabor for help, 
A military company had been organized in 
Tabor, July 29, 1856, which was equipped by 
the state. The citizens of Tabor were called to- 
gether to hear the statement of Mr. Avery, when it 
was unanimously agreed that we go to the aid of 
our friends at Percival, and that we set out early 



142 Reminiscences 

next morning, In order to be present ' at the 
opening of the trial. Accordingly there was a stir 
in Tabor bright and early next day. The parson 
mounted his steed, and set out in advance, going 
by way of Father Rector's to inform him of passing 
events, and suggest the propriety of his being 
present, and aiding in keeping the peace. It was a 
cold morning in December. The wind blew strong. 
Gray clouds obscured the sky, and stray flakes of 
snow were falling, and by daylight the parson 
wrapped in his blue blanket had reached Thurman 
on his way. A load of men armed with muskets 
went directly from Tabor, to see that our friends 
had fair play. But the ice was running so thick 
in the river that crossing was considered unsafe, 
and the defendants in the case did not appear, and 
so no trial was had, and we all returned to our 
homes. The case of Williams v, Nuckolls formed 
a suit in the county court for several terms, and 
finally Mr. Williams was awarded several thousand 
dollars damages, which enabled him to build the 
good house and barn, where Sturgis Williams, 
his nephew, now resides. 

Years fled apace. Mr. Nuckolls removed to 
Denver. Mr. Williams was quietly enjoying his 
declining years, when Mr. Nuckolls found occasion 
to return from Denver, and stop for a short time 
among his friends in Nebraska City. One night 
during this short time, Mr. Williams was aroused 



Rev. John Todd 143 

from his slumbers, to find his barn in flames, and 
a brisk breeze blowing directly toward the house, 
so it was with difficulty that it was saved from 
burning, too. Mr. Nuckolls' presence at Nebraska 
City and the burning of the barn may have had no 
causal connection, but it was not easy for Mr. 
Williams to avoid the conviction that the former 
sustained to the latter the relation of cause. 



CHAPTER IX 

LATER BUSINESS OF THE UNDER- 
GROUND R. R. 

FUGITIVES FROM THE INDIAN TERRITORY 

EARLY in March of i860 four negroes from 
the Indian Territory made their appearance 
in Tabor, in the eager search for the na- 
tural and inalienable right of personal liberty. 
In the people of Tabor they found sympathiz- 
ing friends. A covered wagon was provided, 
the fugitives were loaded in and entrusted to 
Edward T. Sheldon and Newton Woodford 
as conductors. They started on Friday night, 
and proceeded by way of Silver Creek, and 
Mud creek. At the latter place as they stopped 
to bait, the character of their load was discovered. 
The wagon, however, was permitted to proceed 
on its way; but some pro-slavery persons procured 
papers of Squire Cramer, a justice of the peace in 
the vicinity, and with a posse on horseback pursued 
and overtook the wagon and arrested the con- 
ductors, and took from them the slaves, turning 
over the white men to be tried before Squire Cra- 
mer. The arrest was made on Saturday morning, 



Rev. John Todd 145 

and the slaves were taken to Glenwood, to be 
lodged in jail for safe keeping. But Mr. Samson, 
who then had charge of the jail in Mills county, 
lov^ed liberty himself, and knew his duties too well 
to prostitute his official position to so degrading a 
business. As the slaves could not then be lodged 
in jail, they were brought and lodged for a time 
in the barn of Mr. Geo. Linnville, a couple of 
miles southeast of Glenwood, and on Sunday they 
were removed to the house of Joe Foster, of 
Silver Creek. Daniel Briggs brought word to 
Tabor on Saturday p. m. of the collision of the 
last train on the Underground R. R. A council 
was hastily convened at the residence of G. B. Gas- 
ton. A company on horseback went to Glenwood, 
to learn the whereabouts of the slaves, and not find- 
ing them there, they returned homeward through 
Wabonsie seeking them. They were probably in 
Mr. Linnville's barn, when the company from 
Tabor passed by to Glenwood. The time for the 
trial of Edward T. Sheldon and Newton Woodford 
before Squire Cramer was set at 10 a. m. on 
Sunday. Many of the people of Tabor were in- 
terested enough to attend, believing that if an ox 
fallen into a pit might be lifted out on the Sabbath 
day, much more might tzvo men be delivered on 
the Sabbath. Jas. Vincent and Pascal Mason 
acted as counsel for the defendants. Among others 

present at the trial were E. S. Hill, Geo. Hunter, 

10 



146 Reminiscences 

E. Avery, C. F. Lawrence, James L. Smith, S. 
H. Adams, Clark Briggs and Dr. Sanborn. 

The trial was late in its beginning and slow 
in its proceeding, so that it was not through until 
9 p. m. It resulted in the release and acquittal of 
the defendants. But toward the close of the trial 
one of the crowd, McMillan by name (others say 
Wing), inquired of one of the Tabor boys if he 
could keep a secret. On being assured that he 
could and would, he handed him a paper which 
stated that there was game for his party at the 
house of Joe Foster, two miles away. This hint 
prompted E. S. Hill and Geo. Hunter to go and 
take a position in the brush near the house desig- 
nated, where they could observe what was going 
on. And here let me say, the ground was covered 
with snow. The moon had been eclipsed that 
evening and consequently was at its full. It was 
a clear, cold, frosty night. There never was a 
brighter moonlight night than that was. A wagon 
drawn by four horses was brought out. They saw 
the slaves brought forth and loaded into the wagon, 
and watched, until they got fairly started on their 
way, and marked the road they took, then hastened 
back to Squire Cramer's to report. They reached 
the Squire's just as the trial closed, and then as all 
were released, they piled into two sleds and gave 
chase. Though behind the wagon miles in distance 
and hours in time, they soon struck the trail, fol- 



Rev. John Todd 147 

lowed on, and pressed their steeds to do their best, 
passing down on the west side of the West Nish- 
nabotna to White Cloud, where they stopped to 
inquire, and learned that the wagon had passed 
there not long before, and crossed the river. This 
was the first real assurance that they were on the 
right track, and greatly encouraged the pursuers. 
The wagon led on down the river bottom on the 
east side, and after a time was seen on a distant 
rise. On pressed the kidnappers — Mr. Cassell on 
horseback, Jim Gardner driving, W. K. FoUett 
piloting the way, Joe Foster on horseback "three 
sheets in the wind," Squire Wyatt and Geo. Linn- 
ville aiders and abettors. The pursuers embraced 
Ed. T. Sheldon, E. S. Hill, Geo. Hunter, E. 
Avery, A. C. Gaston, Chas. F. Lawrence, Jas. L. 
Smith, and Pascal Mason. 

On they rushed in hot pursuit, and overhauled 
the wagon nearly due east of Tabor, in the early 
dawn of morning. One of the sleds struck out 
ahead, and doubled up the leaders of the wagon 
team, and the other closed up behind enforcing 
obedience to the simultaneous shout, "Halt!" while 
all except the drivers leaped from the sleds, each 
drawing a sled stake for want of a better weapon, 
surrounded the wagon, and, in the attitude of tak- 
ing aim, demanded a surrender, and surrender they 
did. All were required to go to Tabor. They 
came in and stopped at the hotel, then kept by 



148 ^ Reminiscences 

Jesse West, where they warmed up, after an all 
night's cold ride. Breakfast was soon ready for 
all the company, but the pro-slavery party objected 
to eating with niggers — declared they were not 
used to that, and did not propose to begin now. 
"Oh, well!" said the landlord, "you needn't. You 
can sit down and eat, and the others can eat after- 
ward." They sat down to breakfast, and by the 
time they were through, the fugitives were well 
started on their way to freedom, and the kidnap- 
pers saw them no more. 

As the fugitives had made their escape, and were 
gone, there was nothing further to be done but to 
send the pro-slavery captives to their respective 
homes. This was accordingly done by escorting 
such of them to their residences as had no teams 
of their own to convey them there. O. Cummings, 
J. K. Gaston, John Hallam, G. B. Gaston, W. M. 
Brooks and others had been out all night searching 
through Wabonsie, along the Missouri bottom, 
and miles south of Thurman, from which night 
search they returned, just as the captured party 
from across the Nishnabotna river entered Tabor. 
As the fugitives left the hotel without their break- 
fast, they repaired to L. E. Webb's, two miles east 
of Tabor, for breakfast and rested there through 
the day. About sundown they set out for Canada, 
escorted by O. Cummings, D. E. Woods, L. B. 
Hill, Pascal Mason, and others on horseback. 



Rev. John Todd 149 

They started in a sled, but changed to a wagon 
at Mr. Hill's. Streams were all frozen over, and 
could be crossed on the ice wherever a team could 
get down and up the banks. This train therefore 
took a " bee line " for Lewis and, after striking 
the divide between Walnut creek and East Nish- 
nabotna, they followed it up to Lewis. Before 
reaching that station, they sent part of their com- 
pany ahead to reconnoiter to see that the coast was 
all clear. The moon was setting in the west, and 
the sun just rising in the east, as the train halted 
at the O. Mills station for breakfast. This com- 
pany left Tabor the first time on Friday evening, 
March 6, i860, and reached the division station 
at Lewis on Tuesday morning, the loth, being 
three days and four nights in making a journey 
which ordinarily required but twenty-four hours. 
At Lewis they were placed in the care of other con- 
ductors, and the Tabor people returned home 
again. When we consider the number of days 
and nights in succession spent by some of these 
persons in the cold winter, scouring the country in 
the saddle in search of the slaves, simply to help 
a fellow mortal to the enjoyment of liberty, we 
can see the strength of self-denial for others' good, 
which this philanthropy inspires. Said an actor, 
in these scenes in my hearing, who had joined our 
community four or five years before from Ohio, 
" I aided in a single year in Ohio more than a 



i^o Reminiscences 

hundred fugitives to escape," This certainly indi- 
cates great activity in this line of business. It 
seems difficult for some to believe that so much 
risk and self-denial can be incurred without pecuni- 
ary compensation. In Ohio it was reported fifty 
years ago by the pro-slavery people that abolition- 
ists received $25 a head for every slave they landed 
in Canada, and some seemed really to beheve it 
true. A man in Nebraska City years ago, who was 
bitterly cursing the abolitionists, was asked what 
he meant by an abolitionist, to which he replied, 
"An abolitionist? Why, an abolitionist is one 
who steals niggers and runs them off south and 
sells them and pockets the money." With such 
abolitionists none of us have ever had any acquain- 
tance. 

ANOTHER CASE 

Two fugitives from slavery were arrested by 
some persons (who were willing to do their owner 
a favor, or were eager to get a reward, or per- 
haps were prompted by both these motives com- 
bined) and lodged in the Linden jail for safe 
keeping. While there the weather was very cold, 
and they begged of the jailer a pan of live coals 
to keep them from freezing. When comfortably 
warm other possible benefits from the fire were 
suggested. With the pan of coals they managed 
to burn a hole through the floor large enough to 



Rev. John Todd 151 

effect their escape. As they proceeded up the Mis- 
souri river bottom a furious snow storm overtook 
them, and in the blinding blizzard they got sepa- 
rated from each other, and nearly perished in the 
cold. One of them found his way to Tabor, and 
stayed at Mr. G. B. Gaston's several weeks, hoping 
that his companion in bonds would make his ap- 
pearance. Accustomed to active life he disliked to 
be idle, and asked for work. Mr. Gaston set him 
to cutting wood in the woods and for weeks he 
repaired daily to the work after breakfast in the 
morning, carrying with him a lunch for noon, and 
returning home in the shadows of the evening. 
After some weeks his companion in travel and trib- 
ulation came along, and they proceeded on their 
way to freedom. 

Slavery had to foster a race prejudice in order 
to maintain its haughty and oppressive assumption 
of lordly power. Anglo-Saxons were created to 
rule, Africans to serve. This doctrine was so as- 
siduously inculcated that it had Its influence in 
shaping legislation and modifying public sentiment 
even in the free states. Hence the law which in 
Iowa discriminates against persons of color and 
forbids them to locate in the state until they give 
bonds that they will not become a public charge. 
But the baneful influence of slavery manifested 
itself in other ways. 



1^2 Reminiscences 

CASE OF KIDNAPPING 

About the year i860, as John WiUiamson, 
Henry Garner, and his sister Maria, were on their 
way from Percival to Omaha, a covered carriage 
with two or three men in it overtook them. As 
the Garners and WiUiamson were riding quietly 
along, not suspecting any danger, the carriage 
drove up behind them, the men jumped out hastily, 
and one of them with a stick or club struck Henry 
a crushing blow on the cheek, not only stunning 
him but breaking the cheek bone. All three 
were taken and hurried away into Missouri. But 
Williamson managed to make his escape after some 
days. Henry and Maria were lodged in a slave 
pen in St. Louis, awaiting the day of sale in the 
slave market of that city. News of the kidnapping 
of the Garners no sooner reached Dr. Blanchard 
than he dropped all else, and made it his business 
to recover them. Mr. Gaston was informed of the 
occurrence, and together they spent days in diligent 
search through northwestern Missouri, and down 
as far as St. Joe. After obtaining some reliable 
trace of them and learning that they had been 
taken to St. Louis, Mr. Gaston returned home and 
Dr. Blanchard followed on to that place. He suc- 
ceeded in tracing them to the prison, and stated to 
the keeper the wrongful manner in which they had 
been seized, and that they were really free negroes. 



Rev. John Todd 153 

The keeper proposed to test the truth of the 
doctor's story by bringing him Into their presence 
and noting the effect of their seeing him. When 
Dr. Blanchard entered, Henry, suffering severely 
yet from the blow he had received, and apparently 
in utter despair of any relief in the future, did not 
look up. But Maria no sooner looked up than 
she jumped up and ran and threw her arms around 
him, exclaiming, "Oh! Dr. Blanchard! where did 
you come from?" The testimony was indisput- 
able. After proper legal steps Henry and Maria 
were set at liberty, and the kidnappers were placed 
in the custody of proper officers, brought to Coun- 
cil Bluffs, and there imprisoned to await their trial. 
But before the time for their trial they broke jail 
and effected their escape. 

The principal in this kidnapping was a man by 
the name of Hurd, who had been in Kansas, and 
came away in not very good repute. He had been 
hanging about Dr. Blanchard's for several weeks 
apparently watching his chance. He was after- 
ward heard of In Kansas, and In a year or two 
after this kidnapping scrape, it was reported that 
he was hung for horse stealing. " The way of the 
transgressor is hard." 



CHAPTER X 
JOHN BROWN'S PREPARATIONS 

CAPTAIN BROWN RESUMED 

CAPT. JOHN BROWN, as we have seen, 
went east late in the autumn of 1856, 
where he spent the winter counselling with 
and rallying the friends of freedom in Kansas. He 
returned again to Tabor August 7, 1857, where 
he remained several months, and until after the 
fall elections in Kansas, the result of which he 
watched with intense interest. He boarded in the 
family of Jonas Jones, who then occupied the house 
on the northeast corner of Center and Orange 
streets, where President Brooks now resides. 
Colonel Forbes arrived two days later and re- 
mained until the 2d of November, and being an 
expert as a military tactician, he seemed to be teach- 
ing the captain military science. Owen Brown, 
son of the captain, was also here that summer. 
Part of the time they practiced shooting at a tar- 
get with Sharps rifles. In the point of one of 
the prairie ridges which run north and south and 
just north of Dragoon hollow, they dug a hole of 
sufficient dimensions to contain a man comfortably. 



Rev. John Todd 155 

A sheet-like white cloth with a black spot in the 
center, suspended on two stakes, was placed on the 
north side of the hole, in which one of their num- 
ber placed himself with his back to the marksmen, 
fronting the target, and deep enough in the ground 
to be safe from any balls that might be fired. There 
with a long pointer in hand terminated by a black 
knob about the size of a man's fist to render it 
more readily distinguishable, sat the indicator 
awaiting the report of a Sharps rifle half a mile 
or more away south, whither Colonel Forbes and 
Captain Brown had repaired to try their skill as 
marksmen. No sooner was the report of the dis- 
tant rifle heard than the black knob on the end of 
the pointer was placed on the hole where the ball 
perforated the target, which the marksmen, with 
the aid of a field glass, could readily see and mod- 
ify their subsequent attempts accordingly. A book 
on military science entitled, " The Patriotic Volun- 
teer," of which Colonel Forbes was the author, 
formed a text book for study, while target prac- 
tice afforded them ample exercise in the open air. 
Thus passed the summer and autumn of 1857, and 
when Captain Brown learned that the elections in 
Kansas had passed quietly, unmolested by ruflians 
from Missouri, he proceeded to gather up the 
free state stores that had been deposited in Tabor 
and ship them away. Though very reticent and 
little disposed to publish his projects. Captain 



156 Reminiscences 

Brown was understood by his friends to be intend- 
ing, in case the elections were interfered with again, 
to raise, clothe, arm and equip a company of 
mounted men and pitch in and fight it out in Kan- 
sas ; but as the elections passed off quietly, he gath- 
ered all together and took his departure. 

Colonel Forbes took steamer at Nebraska City 
for the east November 2, 1857, and Captain 
Brown took the emigrant road to Kansas, in a 
wagon driven by one of his sons. His chief object 
in going to Kansas seems to have been to gather 
about him a company of young men, whose object 
culminated in the Harper's Ferry tragedy. Later 
in the season there met at Tabor, Captain Brown, 
Owen Brown, A. D. Stephens, Charles Moffit, C. 
P. Tidd, Richard Robertson, Colonel Richard 
Realf, L. F. Parsons, Wm. Leaman and Captain 
Cook. These had intended to go to the Western 
Reserve to winter, but Forbes had betrayed their 
plans to the government authorities, and they, 
for this reason, together with limited finances, 
concluded to remain in Iowa through the winter. 
Here I quote from Captain Cook's confession : 
" We stopped some days at Tabor making prepa- 
rations to start. Here we found that Captain 
Brown's ultimate destination was the state of Vir- 
ginia. Some warm words passed between him and 
myself in regard to the plan, which I supposed 
was to be confined entirely to Kansas and Mis- 



Rev. John Todd 157 

souri. Realf and Parsons were of the same opin- 
ion with me. After a good deal of wrangling we 
consented to go on, as we had not the means to 
return, and the rest of the party were so anxious 
that we should go with them. At Tabor we pro- 
cured teams for the transportation of about 200 
Sharps rifles which had been taken on as far as 
Tabor one year before, at which place they had 
been left awaiting the orders of Captain Brown. 
There were also other stores consisting of blankets, 
clothing, boots, ammunition, and about two hun- 
dred revolvers of the Massachusetts Arms patent, 
all of which we transported across the state of 
Iowa to Springdale, and from there to Liberty, at 
which place they were shipped for Ashtabula 
county, Ohio, where they remained till brought to 
Chambersburg, Pa., and were from there trans- 
ported to a house in Washington county, Md., 
which Captain Brown had rented for six months, 
and which was situated about five miles from Har- 
per's Ferry." 

These two hundred Sharps rifles (twenty boxes 
and ten in a box) were stored in the parson's cellar 
for about a year. So you see how nearly the 
parson was implicated in the Harper's Ferry Insur- 
rection. Captain Brown and his ten young men 
spent the winter of 1857-8 in Iowa, in the study 
and practice of military tactics, under the drill 
of A. D. Stephens. In the early summer of 1858 



158 Reminiscences 

he was again in southern Kansas, throwing his 
power on the side of freedom in the strife between 
freedom and slavery. The country at that time 
was in a state of great excitement and turmoil, con- 
stant raiding, and fighting and murdering between 
the border ruffians and free state men. The great- 
est vigilance was required to live at all. In this 
state of things, Captain Brown and his faithful 
clan endeavored to be prepared for any emer- 
gency. Two hundred Missourians were collected 
in Missouri, eight miles from the Kansas line, for 
the purpose of invading the territory. At this 
juncture, early in January, 1859, Captain Brown 
began to talk of offensive operations and proposed 
to invade Missouri. While yet undecided, a slave 
who was to be sold with his family down the river 
next day came to Captain Brown and besought 
him to deliver them from this calamity. Accord- 
ingly Captain Brown took twelve men and went 
up one side of the Osage river, and Kagi with 
eight ascended the other side, for the purpose of 
freeing slaves. The former freed not only the 
family that asked aid, but others, too, ten in all, 
with team and wagon as remuneration for the 
years of unpaid toil. Kagi's party obtained but 
one slave, in securing which they killed the master, 
who was attempting to take the life of one of the 
party in defense of his property. Thus Missouri 
was invaded, and slaves taken by force from their 



. Rev. John Todd 159 

masters, even at the cost of life. After a short 
stay in Kansas, Captain Brown with his company 
of eleven slaves, which, by the way, had become 
twelve by the birth of a young John Brown, set 
out for the Queen's Dominions about the 20th of 
January, 1859, ^^^ arrived safely in Tabor with 
their escort early in February. They came the 
latter part of the week and remained several days. 

The small house across the street directly east 
of the public school building then stood where Dr. 
Sanborn's present residence stands, and had been 
used for a primary school room. In that a cook- 
ing stove was placed and there the freedmen made 
their home during their sojourn in Tabor. 

The following paper was handed the parson on 
Sunday morning at the beginning of the morning 
services: "John Brown respectfully requests the 
church at Tabor to offer public thanksgiving to 
Almighty God In behalf of himself and company 
and of their rescued captives in particular, for His 
gracious preservation of their lives and health, 
and His signal deliverance of all out of the hand 
of the wicked hitherto." " Oh, give thanks unto 
the Lord ; for He Is good ; for His mercy endureth 
forever." 

The parson preached at Glenwood in the even- 
ing and from there went directly to Quincy in 
Adams count)', where he remained a week or more 
assisting Brother Penfield in a series of meetings. 



i6o Reminiscences 

Before the Sabbath was past it was reported in 
Tabor that Missouri had been invaded and life 
had been taken to procure these slaves, and con- 
sequently that Captain Brown might be heard in 
his own defense, and that all persons interested 
might hear and judge for themselves, a public meet- 
ing had been called for Monday morning to hear 
Captain Brown. A traveling Missourian chanced 
to stop for the night at the village hotel, and learn- 
ing of the meeting, concluded to attend. This fact 
came to the ears of Captain Brown, who refused 
to speak in the presence of the Missourian and 
demanded that he be required to leave. The audi- 
ence were unwilling to grant this, and leading per- 
sons present strongly insinuated that if no wrong 
had been done the actors ought not to be ashamed 
or afraid to let any and everybody know what they 
had done. The Missourian remained and Cap- 
tain Brown withdrew, greatly grieved that his 
Tabor friends refused to approve his course. 

After Captain Brown left the meeting at the 
school house that Monday morning, the citizens 
proceeded to adopt some resolutions expressive of 
their views of the captain's invasion of Missouri. 
They could not approve of an armed invasion of 
a neighboring state with which we were ostensibly 
at peace. 

With mingled surprise and indignation Captain 
Brown repaired to the residence of Brother Geo. 



Rev. John Todd i6i 

B. Gaston, whose hospitality he had been enjoy- 
ing, apparently feeling that if friends deserted him 
he must "trust in God and keep his powder dry." 
In feeble health from continued exposure, beset 
with a persistent ague, he seemed to feel forsaken; 
he carefully examined and grasped more firmly his 
weapons and curtailed his stay in Tabor. By way 
of Chicago and the lakes, he reached Canada in 
safet}' with his company in due time, and appeared 
in Tabor but once again. About the first of Sep- 
tember, 1859, he came to the residence of Jonas 
Jones on the Sabbath, less than two months before 
his capture at Harper's Ferry, and when taking 
leave on the same day, as Mr. Jones stepped out 
on the porch, he said very impressively, " Good- 
bye, Mr. Jones. I don't say where I am going, 
but you'll hear from me. There has been enough 
said about ' bleeding Kansas.' I intend to make 
a bloody spot at another point and carry the war 
into Africa." From our present standpoint, this 
daring deed of Captain Brown seems to have been 
one link in the long chain of events which hastened 
the final overthrow of legalized American slavery. 



CHAPTER XI 
SEEKING THE STRAY SHEEP 

ABOUT tEe year 1855 ^^e General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian church, in session at 
St. Louis, resolved to take measures to 
plant Presbyterian "churches in new settlements 
in advance of all others." This evidence that 
young America was coming to the front in that 
body naturally led other denominations to look to 
their laurels, and see that no undue advantage 
should be taken of them by any haste to occupy 
new ground. Accordingly several of the older and 
stronger Congregational churches of eastern Iowa, 
in the spring or early summer of 1857, wrote the 
parson requesting that he would take a trip up 
and down among the settlements along the Mis- 
souri river valley, in search of the Congregational 
element, and organize churches where circum- 
stances seemed to warrant such a course, they 
promising to defray all necessary expenses. This 
the parson consented to do, and so set out on 
horseback on Friday, the 17th of July, booted and 
spurred, saddle and saddle bags, prepared to hunt 
up and fold all Congregational sheep. He dined 
at Glenwood, and supped, lodged, and conferred 
with Rev. R. E. Gaylord in Omaha — next day he 



Rev. John Todd 163' 

proceeded on through Saratoga and Florence. At 
that time there was comparatively a small space 
from the north side of Omaha to the south line 
of Florence, a distance of six miles, which was not 
laid out in city lots. Crossing the Missouri river 
again to the east of Florence, he dined at Crescent 
City, which was largely a settlement of Mormons. 
In the afternoon he passed on to Magnolia, and 
stopped with Brother H. D. King and his estimable 
wife over the Sabbath, preaching at 1 1 a. m. In 
the afternoon two Mormon apostles, who had just 
set out on a mission from Preparation, a place fif- 
teen or twenty miles north of Magnolia, where 
a branch of the Mormon church had established 
themselves, and had for some time been preparing 
to send forth twelve apostles, held services. Their 
zvorship was similar to Christian worship in general, 
but when they presented their distinguishing doc- 
trines, they taught the transmigration of souls, and 
held that some of their adherents remembered dis- 
tinctly their previous life on earth, and one even 
remembered the particulars of his former death, 
declaring that a horse ran away with him and 
dashed him to death. Such statements, if sub- 
stantiated, might strongly confirm the theory of 
" the Conflict of Ages." 

On Monday, July 20th, Brother King accom- 
panied the parson on his way, by Butler's Mills and 
Harrison City on the Boyer river, eleven miles 



164 Reminiscences 

from Magnolia, thence to Olmsted, five miles, 
where they found Mr. Henry Olmsted, recently 
from Connecticut, busily engaged with numerous 
hands in the work of building a residence — Mrs. 
Olmsted not yet having arrived. Several Congre- 
gationalists were found here from Connecticut, 
who afterward became the nucleus of the Congre- 
gational church at Dunlap. On the next day, 
Tuesday, July 21st, they went to Denison, twenty- 
three miles, and lodged with a Mr. Goodrich, one 
mile beyond the village. The day following they 
went by Wellington to Judge Morehead's at Ida 
Grove — the only grove of any consequence in Ida 
county, covering about a quarter section. There 
were then but twenty-five persons in the county, 
all told. At Morehead's, an old stage station, 
they met a Mr. Hubbard, of Cherokee, a Yankee 
settlement, twenty-five miles north of this place, 
from whom they learned that Cherokee was the 
only settlement in the county, and consisted of 
four families, including twelve men. 

Thursday, July 23d, they rode together down 
the Maple river, as far as Mapleton, where they 
parted; Brother King returning to Magnolia and 
the parson proceeding to Smithland, a village on 
the Little Sioux river, where he preached in the 
evening. Here were found families of liberal edu- 
cation and fine culture from the vicinity of Boston, 
who had brought their pianos with them, and who 



Rev. John Todd 165 

informed him that in the previous winter of 1856-7 
they had been so blocked by snow drifted by driv- 
ing winds that they drew flour from a point forty 
miles east of there on a hand sled, and to avoid 
starving some had to subsist on bread made of 
bran. While they were ready to perish, the peo- 
ple in Fremont county were having plenty, and 
receiving high prices at Council Bluffs for every 
kind of farm produce taken to that market. 

From Smithland to Sargent's Bluff is about 
thirty miles, and for the last twenty of that thirty 
miles the road was on the Missouri bottom, which 
in this vicinity is about twenty miles wide. This 
portion of the road was, at this season of the year, 
impassable in day time by horses, unless well cov- 
ered, on account of the prevalence of a species of 
green-headed flies, from which, if unprotected, the 
horses would be killed. The parson, therefore, 
waited on Friday, July 24th, at Smithland, until 7 
o'clock p. m., when he set out for a thirty mile 
ridp, twenty miles of which must be passed in the 
night — the road a single track, through tall grass, 
with a few branch roads to lead astray, and no 
person of whom to inquire the way, nor dwelling 
house in twenty miles. Silently plodding the lonely 
way, the parson proceeded, surrounded by a chorus 
of frogs, too modest to sing in the immediate 
presence of a nocturnal traveler, but ready to re- 
sume as soon as he had passed along — interluded 



1 66 Reminiscences 

by the incessant humming of myriads of mosqui- 
toes, that never dreamed of modesty — eager to 
sing in the face of a king, nor were ever known 
even to blush in the presence of royalty. So the 
parson passed on hour after hour in sombre sus- 
pense, uncertain whether the outcome would be Sar- 
gent's Bluff or some other destination, until the 
barking of some faithful watch dog, or the dis- 
tant glimmer of some friendly lamp occasioned a 
sigh of relief, and assured him that he had not 
missed his way. Between hope and fear the gaunt- 
let has been successfully run, and he has safely 
reached again an inhabited land. As " necessity 
knows no law," orderly habits are forgotten and 
the rider retires to his couch at one o'clock a. m. 
of the 25th. After rest and refreshment, the itin- 
erant is again in the saddle and completes the 
journey to Sioux City — eight miles — by 1 1 a. m., 
takes quarters at the Pacific House, and improves 
the remainder of the day in hunting up the wan- 
dering sheep. 

On Monday, July 27th, search was continued 
for the flock in city and suburbs, and a number of 
Congregationalists, as was supposed, were found, 
some of whom proved to be of other denominations. 
But having found some, and having arranged to 
organize two weeks hence, the parson crossed the 
river and turned south, through the settlements in 
Nebraska, — Dakota City, Omadi, Omaha Reserva- 



Rev. John Todd 167 

tion, Decatur, Tekama, Cumming City, De Soto, 
Calhoun, etc., finding some professing Christians in 
every flourishing settlement, but nowhere a suf- 
ficient number of Congregationalists to warrant 
an organization. 

After a week or more at home, the parson set 
out on a second tour to Sioux City on the 4th of 
August, 1857, passing up through Glenwood, 
Council Bluffs, Crescent City, Magnolia, Prepara- 
tion, Belvidere, Smithland, and Sargent's Bluff 
to Sioux City. Desirous to get through with an 
unpleasant task, he left Smithland earlier in the 
afternoon than he had done on the first trip, so 
that he reached the Missouri bottoms before the 
sun was entirely gone, when, as he ventured for- 
ward, the flies so covered and crazed the horse 
that after fighting them for a time it seemed to 
give up in despair, and so set forward on a keen 
run, until the shadows of night came to its relief. 
Sargent's Bluff was reached at 10 p. m. on Friday, 
and Sioux City at 10 a. m. on Saturday, August 
8, 1857, and lodgings taken at the Pacific House. 
On Sunday attended Methodist meeting at 11 
a. m., and announced a meeting and organization 
of a Congregational church at 7 :30 p. m., but at 
that hour a violent thunder storm and sweeping 
rain took the precedence, and no meeting was had. 
On Monday morning the parties interested were 
convened, Articles of Faith and Covenant were 



1 68 Reminiscences 

agreed upon, adopted and formally assented to, 
and the church duly formed. Crossed the Mis- 
souri river at Sioux City as on the previous trip, 
and returned home as before through Nebraska. 

Still there remained that portion of Nebraska 
south of the Platte river to be visited. Accord- 
ingly the pastor set forth again on the 20th of 
August, 1857, crossed the river at Kenosha, where 
were found Bela White and wife, Festus Reed 
and wife, Congregationalists. Next day he pro- 
ceeded by Eight Mile Grove on Bachelor Creek, 
crossing from there to Cedar Creek, about seven 
miles without any road or trail, where he found 
Mr. Tozier and wife, who had been years be- 
fore members of the Congregationalist church 
at California City or Florence. In the after- 
noon he returned toward Plattsmouth, lodged 
with Mr. Maxwell, a Presbyterian, and next day 
passed on to Rock Bluff, crossed the river and re- 
turned home, not having found any material to 
justify the organization of a church. Thus ended 
that special effort to hold our own as Congrega- 
tionalists in the Missouri valley. Nebraska City 
was occupied before this time by a Presbyterian 
organization. The parson preached for some time 
at Sidney, but as Presbyterians predominated there, 
when Father Bell came on from eastern Iowa and 
started a ladies' seminary there, he yielded the 
ground to him. 



CHAPTER XII 
AMITY OR COLLEGE SPRINGS 

THIS place like some others had the misfor- 
tune or inconvenience, in the outset, of hav- 
ing one name for the village and a different 
one for its postoffice. It was named Amity by its 
citizens, but as that name was already appropriated 
elsewhere, the postoffice department named it Col- 
lege Springs, which is rapidly superseding *' Am- 

ity." 

Under the shadow of Knox College, in the city 
of Galesburg, originated the Idea of founding and 
endowing a college In some of the frontier settle- 
ments farther west. Rev. B. F. Haskins and 
William J. Wood were the prime movers In the 
matter. The plan proposed was in brief this : A 
company was organized and officers chosen — a 
president, secretary and treasurer. Persons by 
the payment of one or more shares became mem- 
bers, and when a sufficient sum was secured to 
promise success, a location was to be selected and 
a lot of land entered. A village was to be laid 
out In a central and desirable place for a college. 
The lands and village lots were to be appraised 
at not less than twice the government price, and 



I JO Reminiscences 

members of the company could receive back at the 
appraised value lands and lots to the amount of 
stock they had paid in. In this way they hoped 
to enlist many in the enterprise — to speedily form 
a good settlement — and to secure an endowment 
in land for an institution of learning. In 1854 
or 1855 a locating committee, consisting of B. F. 
Haskins, W. J. Wood, John Cross, B. F. Atkin- 
son and one more (name unknown), came into 
Page county and selected a large tract of unentered 
land for the object contemplated. It was not a 
denominational movement, although the movers in 
the matter were Christians, and did not hide their 
light. Almost all the orthodox denominations were 
represented in the company, and at first all aided 
in maintaining religious worship. They were as 
a body active in reforms, warm advocates of tem- 
perance, anti-slaverj' and anti-secret societies. As 
soon as a place could be furnished for a school, a 
school was opened. Christian ministers were mem- 
bers of the company, and Sabbath services were 
regularly observed. About the year 1858, in the 
autumn of the year, the parson accompanied B. F. 
Gardner and wife to Amity. Though the particu- 
lar year cannot be fixed with certainty, it was the 
one when a most splendid comet decked the heav- 
ens, the tail of which reached from the horizon to 
the zenith — a sight which many among us never 
beheld. The nights were cool, and the mornings 



Rev. John Todd 171 

frosty. The people of Amity were very busy pre- 
paring for winter. There were many new comers, 
and many hastily and poorly constructed dwellings, 
as is common in new settlements. Some were even 
living in tents, but " necessity knows no law." Not- 
withstanding the urgency of business, religious 
meetings were held every evening, and the parson 
remained most of the week, visiting through the 
day and attending meeting in the evening, where 
was manifested unusual religious interest. 

There for the first time I fell in with one, a 
brief sketch of whose history 1 will venture to re- 
late, for the lessons it contains : 

Albert V. House, of respectable parentage, like 
too many youths chafing under wholesome home 
restraint, left home early to learn the shoemaking 
trade. Next he enlisted in the United States army, 
and served through the Seminole Indian war in 
Florida. There he acquired a strong appetite for 
intoxicants, which, though kept in subjection, at- 
tended him through all subsequent life. He was 
at Amity at this time, with a young and interest- 
ing family, and was working at his trade. He 
possessed an unusual gift for public speaking — had 
exercised it as an exhorter in the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, of which he was a member, and had 
been active in Christian work in Amity. A few 
days before I saw him, he had set out for St. Joe 
to replenish his stock in business, taking his own 



172 Reminiscences 

conveyance, as there were then no railroads. He 
reached Marysville the first evening as daylight 
was fading from the western sky. It was a cold 
evening, and he, to use his own words, "was chilled 
to the heart." Just opposite the hotel where he 
stopped was a saloon brilliantly lighted, warm, 
and very attractive. The temptation was too 
strong to be resisted. He was brought back from 
Marysville prostrate and penniless. I found him 
profoundly penitent, greatly humbled, and deeply 
depressed. His Christian friends gathered around 
him and encouraged him to return to the Lord 
heartily and renew his trust in Him. Conscious of 
his weakness and aware of the temptation to which 
itinerancy would expose him, he united with the 
Council Bluffs Congregational Association in April, 
i860, and afterward preached at Hawleyville, 
Glenwood, Nevinville, Otho, Parkersburg, Man- 
son and Lawler, at which last place he died m 
May, 1875. While laboring at Glenwood he was 
invited to a celebration of a wedding occasion, 
where wine was passed. It offended him greatly. 
He spoke of it as a very narrow escape on his part 
from a ruinous fall, and ignorance alone could 
excuse the act, in his estimation. At the meet- 
ing of the Iowa State Congregational Asso- 
ciation at Sioux City in 1872, the Lord's Supper 
was observed on Sunday afternoon, and a temper- 
ance meeting was held elsewhere in the city at the 



Rev. John Todd 173 

same hour. Fermented wine was used. As I put 
the cup to my lips I wondered if Brother House 
was present. Afterward on meeting him I asked 
if he were there. He said, " No, I was called 
upon to speak at the temperance meeting. Why? " 
I replied, " They used fermented wine." 
" Oh ! " he exclaimed, " I am so glad I was not 
there. I wouldn't have been there for ten thou- 
sand dollars." 

The history of Amity affords an example of 
the inutility of pushing organic union, where there 
is not intelligent union of heart. At first all wor- 
shiped together, but as numbers increased, the 
preferences of the different denominations, while 
attracting those who were of the same mind to each 
other, at the same time drew them away from the 
common multitude, until Amity has become noted 
for the number of its churches in proportion to 
its population. 

The college movement at Amity was originally 
undenominational, but even a Christian college 
seems to flourish best under the patronage and sup- 
port of some particular denomination. The ma- 
jority of the trustees of Amity college has for 
many years been United Presbyterians, and they, 
therefore, hold the control of it. 



CHAPTER XIII 

EVANGELISTIC AND TEMPERANCE 
WORK 

1HAVE already spoken of a protracted meet- 
ing, held in the vicinity of Percival, by the 
aid of Rev. Wm. Simpson of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, in the winter of 185 1-2. Tabor 
settlement was begun in the spring of 1852 and 
religious meetings were held in the grove under 
a basswood or linden tree two miles southwest of 
Tabor, near the pastor's log cabin, through the 
summer, and when the autumn breezes began to 
blow Brother G. B. Gaston's house, on the south- 
east corner of Park and Orange streets (now Mr. 
Starrett's) , became the place of meeting. Here 
Mr. and Mrs. Laird, who had recently come from 
Erie county. Pa., to reside, where F. M. Laird 
has since succeeded them, first attended our meet- 
ing. When in 1854 the school house was built on 
the northeast corner of Center and Elm streets, 
that proved the resort for all public gatherings in 
our community until better accommodations were 
provided as the village grew. For many years it 
was customary to hold a series of religious meet- 
ings at some time during the winter season, which 



Rev. John Todd 175 

were uniformly attended with more or less quicken- 
ing of religious interest and conversion of sinners. 
As at first ministers were few and far away, these 
meetings were for a number of years conducted by 
the pastor of the church, efficiently aided by the 
deacons. On one of these occasions every indi- 
vidual in the community was reached and all of 
intelligent age except one cherished a hope in 
Christ. In the autumn of 1856 the parson held a 
protracted meeting in Glenwood, which resulted 
in the organization of the Congregational church 
of that place. In 1857 he aided Brother H. D. 
King, of Magnolia, in holding meetings, and in 
1858 assisted Brother G. B. Hitchcock at Lewis, 
where Deacons Cummings of Tabor and Bush of 
Exira also attended. A deep interest was awak- 
ened and seventeen were added to the church on 
confession. In one of the meetings a father arose 
and, with tearful eyes and faltering voice, con- 
fessed that he had wickedly broken his vow made 
to God when in distress, for when on his way from 
England to America, a violent storm overtook 
them, and when in imminent peril of his life he 
cried to God. He promised his Maker that if He 
would but deliver and enable him and his to reach 
their destination in safety he would serve Him the 
rest of his days. But he had not kept his vow, 
and now God had called his sin to remembrance. 
He turned to God and began a prayerful life, his 



176 Reminiscences 

wife and several children going with him, and 
there was joy in that household. In February, 
1859, the parson assisted Brother H. Penfield at 
Quincy in Adams county. In i860 he helped 
Brother King, of Magnolia again. God worked 
with us and eighteen were added to the church 
on confession. In 1861 meetings were held at 
Percival, attended with a good degree of interest, 
and which resulted in the organization of the 
present Congregational church there. 

During the war of the rebellion attention was 
very much diverted from matters of religion. The 
public mind was absorbingly eager to get the latest 
news from the seat of war. The news of the 
stampede of Bull Run came late in the week and 
furnished a theme for sermons and conversation on 
the following Sunday. True patriots were very 
much cast down, while rebels secretly, and some 
openly, rejoiced. Men grouped together at the 
street corners and gathered about the hotels and 
postoffices and bulletin boards, pouring Ov^er the 
latest despatches and eagerly attempting to pry 
into the future. So many had gone at the call of 
their country that a burden rested on the remnant 
in order to keep home business moving. 

About January i, 1868, the parson aided 
Brother J. H. Morley, of Magnolia, in a few 
days' meetings. Brother H. S. DeForest, during 
his ministry at Council Bluffs, conducted a series 



Rev. John Todd 177 

of religious meetings in Tabor twice, with good 
results. Father Orson Parker, a veteran evangel- 
ist, labored with us in 1870 with much success. 
Elder Balcom, of the Baptist denomination, and 
Brother Lang, of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
also conducted evangelistic meetings successfully 
among us. Efforts of this kind for the past fifteen 
years have been too numerous to mention in de- 
tail. 

TEMPERANCE 

Forty years ago as has been before said, all the 
people in this region of country were accustomed to 
use intoxicants as a beverage. Liquor was freely 
used at the polls on election day. The several can- 
didates furnished it for their friends, and it 
was not uncommon to see men drunk, fighting 
drunk and noisy, before the polls closed. Here 
and there at the boat landings along the river, 
whisky was kept for sale, and the imbibers 
thereof were wont to frequent these places 
for social merrymaking. Broils and fights, and 
reckless smash-ups, were not uncommon. Whisky 
used to be termed a good creature of God, but 
time has show^n the fallacy of such a statement. 
For if Satan has any one tool more pliant, skilful, 
Satanic, and more destructive of all good than any 
or all others, it is Alcohol. It blunts conscience, 
and prompts to the commission of crime; it beats 



178 Reminiscences 

mothers and beggars families; it ruins character 
and destroys souls; it poisons the body and crazes 
the mind; it drags down the talented and noble and 
plunges them into the ditch. Murder, robbery, 
theft, adultery, anger, malice, blasphemy and the 
whole catalogue of crimes are incited and warmed 
into life by this fell destroyer. But much has 
been done to curtail this evil. It is made unchris- 
tian to use It, make it or sell it. It has disappeared 
from the public gaze. It finds no place in the most 
genteel families. Many hotels are run successfully 
without it. Elections are conducted quietly and 
honestly and honorably without it. In no case is 
it indispensable. In most it is decidedly hurtful. 
Temperance has made decided advances. Great 
changes have occurred for the better in the past 
fifty years. May we not hope that intemperance 
will yet be banished from the land? 



CHAPTER XIV 
INDIANS IN IOWA 

THERE are no adults among us, and few 
children, who have not heard of Indians as 
dangerous creatures — a strange people to 
be greatly feared; but many children have never 
seen an Indian. Some years ago a Pawnee Indian 
boy named " Ralph " attended school here in 
Tabor. He dressed, and played, and talked, and 
studied, and recited his lessons just like other boys. 
The United States government removed the Paw- 
nee tribe years ago to the Indian Territory, and 
Ralph went with the rest of them. Geo. B. Gas- 
ton and wife lived several years among the Paw- 
nees in Nebraska, and became deeply interested in 
them, so that some of them visited in Tabor more 
than once. When we first came to Iowa, forty 
years ago, Indians lived just across the Missouri 
river from us, and when the river became frozen 
across in the winter they frequently came over on 
the ice. Some unprincipled white men, who kept 
whisky and drank of it themselves, would give it 
to the Indians, and sometimes they got drunk, and 
then it crazed them and made them dangerous, just 
as it does white men. Drunken Indians came to a 



f 



l8o Reminiscences 

house In California City In Mills county once, 
more than thirty years ago, when the men hap- 
pened to be away from home, and the women shut 
the door against them. When they could not get 
in, one of them attempted to shoot In through the 
open chinks at the side of the door with his bow 
and arrow; but no sooner was the arrow-point In- 
serted between the logs than Mrs. Cordelia Clark 
Martin, with great decision and prompt presence 
of mind, seized It and snatched it out of his hand. 
Mrs. Cordelia C. Hinton probably retains that 
arrow to this day as a souvenir of the perils of 
the past. Baffled In their endeavor to enter that 
house, they went to other houses, and made 
themselves so disagreeable generally that some of 
the party were killed before they recrossed the 
river Into Nebraska. So Alcohol proves to be the 
apt tool of Satan for the destruction of mankind, 
whether he be white, or red, black, brown, or 
yellow. 

Many still live in Fremont county to whom the 
Indian trails or paths, that wound over the hills 
and through the vales, from grove to grove and 
from stream to stream, were as familiar. If not as 
numerous, as are the roads that accommodate the 
traveling public now. Indeed their camp fires were 
still burning when some among us first came to 
Fremont county. The forks and poles which 
formed the frames of their dwellings, and the 



Rev. John Todd i8i 

bark which covered them, reminded us often of the 
singular race that had so recently disappeared. 
No history, then, of the county would be com- 
plete without some account of the native tribes 
which preceded the white man on this soil. 

A feeling of sadness involuntarily steals over us 
as we contemplate the waning glory of the nations 
that once with elastic step, proud mien and brave 
hearts chased over these beautiful prairies herds 
of innumerable buffaloes, stealthily pursued the 
bounding deer and graceful antelope, or more lei- 
surely fished in the rivers, streams and lakes, or 
waylaid the numberless birds of passage that vi- 
brated between their summer and winter homes — 
nations that displayed their mihtary prowess in 
sanguinary tribal conflicts on the field of battle. 
Strong nations have dwindled to insignificant bands 
in their retreat before the influx of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, until they may fittingly adopt the poet's 
sad strain : 

" They waste us ! Aye, like April snow 
In the warm noon we shrink away; 
And fast they follow as we go 
Toward the setting day." 

The aboriginal tribes of America are so related 
to each other that a proper idea of one tribe can 
no more be given without referring to other tribes 
than can the geology of Fremont county be given 



i82 R 



eminiscences 



without referring to the region around it. Indeed, 
the very existence of Indians on this continent pre- 
sents a problem not easy to solve. Its difficulty 
appears in the variety of answers which have been 
given. Since the human family was created and 
cradled in the interior of Asia, the aborigines of 
America must have reached the western continent 
in the same way that the islands of the Pacific were 
reached — that is, by some kind of ocean craft. In- 
dians lined the Atlantic coast from Maine to 
Georgia when the Pilgrims anchored the May- 
flower in Plymouth bay. Four great families of 
tribes, according to the languages spoken, were 
then found in the country — the Iroquois, the Al- 
gonquin, the Mobilian and the Dakotas. While 
there were some exceptions, the mass of the In- 
dians would naturally range under one or other 
of these families. Their manners, customs, policy 
and regulations were such, that alliances and con- 
federations at some times seemed almost to blend 
in one the different tribes; and again hostilities 
would break out and not only separate confeder- 
acies into the original tribes, but often would di- 
vide tribes into bands or clans which, in some in- 
stances, seem to have grown into distinct tribes. 

The westward march of European emigration 
and the exploration of new regions of country have 
brought to light new tribes of Indians, until the 
Indian commissioner's report for 1874 mentions 



Rev. John Todd 183 

one hundred and fifty or more different tribes and 
bands within the United States, numbering in all, 
excluding those of Alaska, 261,851 as reported 
by the secretary of the interior in 1882. 

The Indian tribes seem to have acted over in 
America, on a small scale, the incursions, invasions, 
conflicts and changes which were produced in Eu- 
rope by the Vandals, the Huns, the Heruli, the 
Goths and Gauls, and other nations in their irrup- 
tions and migrations. 

The tribes that have roamed and hunted and 
fought over the fair fields of Iowa are the Sioux, 
Winnebagoes, lowas, Illinois, Sacs and Foxes, and 
Pottawattamies. 

The Sioux or Dakotas, numbering 53,000, are 
the most numerous and powerful tribe of Indians 
within the United States and have long been the 
terror of all the savage hordes, from Spirit Lake 
to the mouth of the Mississippi. They shared with 
the Illinois, and afterward with the Sacs and Foxes, 
the lovely lands of Iowa as their hunting grounds. 
They are a very warlike nation and have been the 
long-time mortal enemies of the Ojibways, Sacs 
and Foxes, and Pawnees. Sitting Bull and Spotted 
Tail, who fought for their rights and homes in the 
Black Hills, are prominent chiefs in this nation. 

The Winnebagoes were found by Captain Jona- 
than Carver in 1766, located around Winnebago 
lake in Wisconsin. They were warm friends of 



184 Reminiscences 

the Sioux, not a numerous tribe, and could then 
raise two hundred warriors. From their tradi- 
tions, language and customs he judged " that the 
Winnebagoes originally resided in New Mexico 
and, being driven from their native country either 
by intestine divisions or by the extension of the 
Spanish conquests, they took refuge in these more 
northern parts, about a century before." This 
tribe seems to have affiliated with the lowas, and 
Sacs and Foxes, and part of it found its way 
with them into Iowa. From the commissioner's 
report of 1882 we learn that the Winnebagoes on 
their reservation in eastern Nebraska, adjoining 
the Omaha reservation on the north, number 
1,422, which are all of the tribe, except about 400 
vagabonds, who have returned to Wisconsin, and 
a few who have joined the Sacs and Foxes in Tama 
county, Iowa. 

The lowas, from whom our state takes its name, 
were at one time identified with the Sacs of Rock 
river, but for some reason separated from them 
and assumed to be a band by themselves. For a 
time the lowas occupied the same hunting grounds 
with the Sacs and Foxes, and seem to have come 
with them into Iowa. In the beginning of the 
present century they had two villages in the state, 
one on the right bank of the Iowa river, about ten 
miles above its confluence with the Mississippi, and 
the other, which was their principal village, on the 



Rev. John Todd 185 

Des Moines river on the site of lowaville in Van 
Buren county. Here the last great battle was 
fought between the lowas and the Sacs and Foxes, 
in which the latter were the assailants. The lowas 
were taken altogether by surprise and unarmed. 
The attack resulted in the burning and complete 
destruction of the village and slaughter of great 
numbers of the lowas, men, women and children. 
In this fight, which was more of a massacre than 
a battle. Black Hawk, then a young man, led a 
detachment of the aggressors. 

In 188 1 this tribe, numbering one hundred and 
thirty, is reported as occupying sixteen thousand 
acres of a reservation in southeastern Nebraska, 
known as the Great Nemaha Reservation, which is 
shared by them and the Sacs and Foxes. Though 
greatly reduced in numbers, they are said to be 
making commendable progress in husbandry, learn- 
ing and civilization. They have adopted a code of 
laws, employ a tribal police, and fine every man 
who gets drank five dollars. Sixty-three of the 
Sacs and Foxes of Missouri share the civil regula- 
tions and educational advantages with them. They 
are Industrious, thrifty and provident. 

At a grand council, held at the great Ojibway 
village on the shores of Lake Superior in 1665, 
we learned that the Illionis tribe was represented. 
This tribe, from which the river and state took 
their name, was at one time numerous and power- 



1 86 Reminiscences 

ful. Their hunting ground extended from Rock 
river to the Ohio, and westward to the Des Moines. 
Marquette and Joliet, French explorers, and the 
first Europeans that ever set foot in Iowa, in June, 
1673, visited three Illinois villages on the bank 
of a river, supposed to be the Des Moines. They 
were cordially received, smoked the calumet with 
their new found friends, and remained with them 
six days perfecting their acquaintance. 

Though the Illinois were at one time a formid- 
able nation, and roamed over ample hunting 
grounds, pursuing the buffalo and the deer on the 
vast plains, fishing in the majestic rivers, or glid- 
ing over the lakes and streams in their light canoes, 
yet their pride, cruelty and vengeful spirit trans- 
formed friends to foes, and produced a harvest 
like the sowing of the fabled dragon's teeth, so 
that enemies beset them round. When the Sacs 
and Foxes crowded them on the north, the Miamis 
on the east, Osages and Shawnees on the south 
and Sioux on the west, they became straitened 
and cut off on every side. They had a populous 
village of 6,000 or 7,000 inhabitants on the Illi- 
nois river, near the present town of Utica, in La 
Salle county, where Joliet and Marquette found 
friendly entertainment on their return from the 
lower Mississippi in 1673. Tonti, the lieutenant 
of LaSalle, spent the winter of 1679 ^^^ '^*^' ^^^ 
the following summer, at this large Illinois town. 



Rev. John Todd 187 

In September of this year (1680) a bloody battle 
was fought between the Iroquois and Illinois, on 
the prairie skirting the timber along the Vermil- 
ion river southeast of this village. The Iroquois 
were victors, and, after the fight, crossed the river 
and laid the Illinois town in ashes. Soon after, 
Tonti, being deserted by his men, and attacked by 
the Indians, took refuge among the Pottawatta- 
mies on Lake Michigan. Two years later he, with 
LaSalle, returned and fortified an almost inacces- 
sible rock on the south bank of the river opposite 
the site of this village, and named it Fort St. Louis. 
This place, which Tonti held till 1688, is now 
known as "Starved Rock;" it rises perpendic- 
ularly from the water on the river side to 
the height of two hundred feet, is level on the 
top, and can be scaled only on the land side, and at 
a single point, which is easily defended. It ac- 
quired its name and notoriety from the following 
incident: The Illinois tribe, beset with enemies 
on every side, wasted by predatory incursions, and 
slaughtered in sanguinary strife, had become re- 
duced to a mere remnant of its former greatness. 
The death of the great chieftain, leader and favor- 
ite, Pontiac, at Cahokia in 1769, by the hand of 
an Illinois assassin, caused the long gathering cloud 
of Indian wrath to burst in fury on that devoted 
nation. Seven cities claimed the nativity of Ho- 
mer; more than one tribe claimed Pontiac. Park- 



1 88 Reminiscences 

man writes him an Ottawa chief, Carver a Miami, 
and others a Sac. His was an eventful life. Born 
in 17 12 — as an ally of the French, he defended 
Detroit in 1746 — led several hundred Ottawas at 
Braddock's defeat in 1755 — escorted the English 
to Detroit in 1760 — conspired against the English 
settlers in America in 1762 — besieged Detroit for 
five months in 1763 — submitted to the English in 
1766, and was killed in 1769. 

The " Conspiracy of Pontiac " is the theme of 
an interesting volume by Parkman. He was a 
chief of broad views, great courage and daring, 
and very extensive influence. He never liked the 
English, and conceived the idea of destroying all 
the English on the continent. To accomplish this 
fondly cherished object he succeeded in enlisting 
nearly all the prominent tribes in the eastern half 
of the North American continent. He was artful 
in diplomacy, skilled in treachery, and cunning, en- 
ergetic and brave in battle. To effect his object, 
a simultaneous attack was made on all the frontier 
settlements from the lakes to the gulf. Many were 
slain, and more were compelled to flee for their 
lives. Whole families were massacred, houses 
burned and happy homes laid waste. No one felt 
safe to go abroad, and many trembled in their 
homes. Every one who could went armed. The 
minister, and all the men of his congregation, went 
to church armed on Sunday. The pastor stood 



Rev. John Todd 189 

his loaded rifle behind him when he preached, and 
families took their places in the pews, while the 
head of the household sat next the aisle with his 
ready rifle in easy reach to defend his own. (Thus 
began the custom of the husband taking the head 
of the pew, which continues to this day.) 

During this time of terror, the following tragic 
scene occurred on the farm adjoining the writer's 
native place, as heard by him repeatedly later. A 
large family of several grown boys and some small 
children occupied the place. It was in the autumn 
— wheat sowing time. Two boys with rifles in 
hand were standing on guard. The father was 
sowing, and two others with teams were harrow- 
ing; when, before they had any knowledge of the 
presence of Indians, the two on guard were shot 
down. The others fled — one of the sons hastened 
to the house, hid the small children, hastily ad- 
justed affairs within, and then ran to the woods 
and climbed a tree, where he could overlook the 
proceedings, and while there he saw the Indians 
pursue, overtake, tomahawk and scalp his father 
at the door-yard gate. Though the Indians en- 
tered the house, the hidden ones were not found. 
When the survivors of that family gathered again 
around the home hearth, how lonely ! how sad ! 

A stone house with port holes, which the writer 
has often seen, was the refuge for that neighbor- 
hood in a time of Indian alarm. Such a time of 



190 Reminiscences 

peril must be exceedingly trying; but such our 
ancestors endured, and fearful times were had all 
along the western frontiers. 

A destructive war was waged by the Miamis, 
Kickapoos and Pottawattamies, against the Illinois 
in 1768. The latter were defeated at the Wabash 
— at Blue Island near Joliet, and at Morris. The 
remnant took refuge on this inaccessible rock — 
henceforth to be known as " Starved Rock." Here 
their enemies besieged them until hunger and thirst 
impelled them, as a last resort, to attempt an es- 
cape. On a very dark and stormy night, they broke 
forth upon their besiegers, when eleven of their 
number succeeded in escaping down the river. 
Thus ended a once brave and strong nation. Their 
name appears no more on the Indian commission- 
er's report. The tribe of Benjamin is blotted out. 
Their enemies have glutted their revenge. They 
vanish before the advancing march of white men. 

The Sacs and Foxes, whose hunting grounds 
in Iowa, in the eighteenth century, extended from 
the Mississippi to the Missouri, were first heard 
of in the valley of the St. Lawrence. The con- 
federated Iroquois, or five nations, in New York — 
the Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, Onondagas and 
Mohawks — to which were afterwards added the 
Tuscaroras (when they were known as six nations) 
had become so formidable, aggressive and hostile 
to neighboring tribes, that many were driven from 



I 



Rev. John Todd 191 

their ancestral homes, preferring exile to constant 
fear and impending destruction. The Sacs and 
Foxes were originally two distinct nations, and 
were crowded westward by the encroachment of 
their stronger neighbors. The various steps, by 
which they reached the plains of Iowa, we are not 
able clearly to trace, but we hear of the Foxes 
occupying the banks of the Detroit river in 1685. 
The Sacs were party to a grand council on the 
shores of Lake Superior in 1665. Friendly to 
the English and hostile to the French, and insti- 
gated by the " six nations," the Foxes attempted 
to capture the French post at Detroit in 1712. 
For nineteen days the siege was maintained with- 
out success, when they in turn were shut up in their 
entrenchments by the French and their Indian al- 
lies, from which they escaped to Lake St. Clair, 
where they again entrenched themselves; but were 
pursued, and after five days' siege were compelled 
to surrender. The victors massacred all the war- 
riors who bore arms, and many of the rest, whom 
they attempted in vain to enslave, they afterward 
put to death. More than a thousand of the Foxes 
perished in this strife. Exasperated, but not sub- 
dued, they rallied their scattered bands on the Fox 
river In Wisconsin, to take vengeance on the 
French, by waylaying, robbing and murdering the 
French traders and travelers In their passage be- 
tween the lakes and the Mississippi. For a year or 



192 Reminiscences 

two they cut off almost all communication between 
Canada and Louisiana. Many of the Indian allies 
of the French also suffered greatly. 

This aroused the French in turn, in 17 14, to 
rally their forces and exterminate once and forever 
so troublesome a foe. The plan, which was to 
unite all the other tribes under a French com- 
mander, soon placed at his behest a force of eight 
hundred warriors, all pledged not to lay down their 
arms while a member of the Fox tribe remained 
on French territory. When the Foxes saw the im- 
pending evil, they resolved to sell their lives as 
dearly as possible, and, in their desperation, se- 
lected a strong position near the confluence of the 
Wolf and Fox rivers (now known as Butte des 
Morts, or Hill of the Dead), which they fortified 
with three rows of oak palisades and a ditch. Here 
five hundred warriors and three thousand women 
and children awaited the attack. De Louvigny, 
the French commander, commenced by cannonad- 
ing. On the third day the Foxes attacked their 
enemies with great vigor, but, after a bloody fight, 
were obliged to capitulate. A treaty of peace was 
agreed upon, which the Foxes soon violated. The 
result was that the French again chastised them 
in 1728, and in 1746 drove them out of their 
country westward. In their expulsion the Ojibways 
were the efficient allies of the French. 



Rev. John Todd 193 

When first known in Iowa the Foxes were in 
alliance with the Sacs, and were recognized as the 
Sac and Fox nations. Exactly when the alliance 
was formed is not known, but it must have been 
subsequent to 1746, as at that time the Foxes 
fought the French alone. It seems probable 
that the alliance was formed for the conquest 
of their new hunting grounds west of the 
Mississippi. Captain Carver, in his travels 
in 1766, page 25, when speaking of Fox river, 
says: " This river is remarkable for having been, 
about eighty years ago, the residence of the united 
bands of the Ottagaumies (Foxes) and the Saukies 
(Sacs)." 

When, in 1805, soon after the transfer of the 
Louisiana purchase to the United States, Lieuten- 
ant Zebulon M. Pike explored the Mississippi from 
St. Louis to its source, the Sacs and Foxes hunted 
on both sides of the river from the Jeffreon river 
in Missouri to the Iowa river north of Prairie du 
Chien and west to the Missouri. The Sacs princi- 
pally resided in four villages — the first on the west 
bank of the Mississippi at the head of the Des 
Moines rapids, at or near Montrose; the second 
on the east bank, sixty miles above, at the mouth 
of the Henderson river; the third on Rock river, 
three miles from its mouth; the fourth on the Iowa 
river. 

The Foxes then dwelt mainly in three villages — 



194 Reminiscences 

the first on the west side of the Mississippi river, 
six miles above the Rock, river rapids; the second 
about twelve miles in the rear of the lead mines, 
or Dubuque ; and the third on Turkey river, a mile 
and a half from its mouth. 

Both Sacs and Foxes engaged in the same wars, 
maintained the same alliances, and were consid- 
ered indissoluble in war and in peace. They were 
efficient alders and abettors, if not chief parties, in 
the extermination of the Illinois. They became 
hostile to the lowas, whose chief village, on the 
site of lowaville on the Des Moines in Van Buren 
county, they burnt, near the close of the eighteenth 
century, and slaughtered and well nigh exterminat- 
ed its inhabitants. In this battle Black Hawk, who 
was born at the Sac village on Rock river in 1767, 
led a band of warriors in the attack, and here 
began the career for which he afterward became so 
famous. • 

Black Hawk was never warmly attached to the 
Americans. He was dissatisfied when, in 1804, 
Louisiana was transferred to the United States, 
and never approved of the treaty made at St. Louis, 
November 3, 1824, by which five chiefs of the 
Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States their 
lands east of the Mississippi, from a point opposite 
the Jeffreon river In Missouri, to the Wisconsin 
river. He objected that the chiefs had no author- 
ity to cede the lands, that the compensation was 



Rev. John Todd 195 

inadequate, and that the chiefs were kept drunk 
while at St. Louis. Black Hawk aided Tecumseh 
against the United States in 181 1, became an ally 
of England in the war of 18 12. On May 13, 
1 8 16, with twenty-two chiefs and head men he 
assented to, and signed, the treaty which had been 
concluded in St. Louis in 1804. In the fall 
of 1830, on returning from his hunt west 
of the Mississippi, he found his village oc- 
cupied by Americans, and his women and 
children driven out and rendered shelterless 
by the influx of emigration. This state of things 
was intolerable, and led to the Black Hawk war, 
which continued for more than a year and ended in 
the capture of Black Hawk and the complete rout 
and slaughter of his forces on August 2, 1832. 
Seven weeks after his capture, the Sacs and Foxes 
ceded by treaty to the United States the Black 
Hawk purchase, a tract fifty miles wide on the 
west bank of the Mississippi; a reservation of four 
hundred square miles on the Iowa river made at 
that time, was ceded back to the United States, 
September 28, 1836. On October 21, 1837, one 
million two hundred and fifty thousand acres along 
the west side of the Black Hawk purchase were 
ceded. February 21, 1838, all their lands in Iowa, 
between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, were 
ceded, and in 1842 all their lands west of the Mis- 
sissippi. 



196 Kemtmscences 

Part of them were removed to Kansas in the 
fall of 1845 ^^^ the rest in the spring after. 

According to the estimate of the secretary of 
war in 1825 the entire number of the Sacs and 
Foxes was four thousand six hundred. The gov- 
ernment report for 188 1-2 states the number of 
Sacs and Foxes under the care of the agency in the 
Indian Territory to be five hundred and sixty-two, 
those on the reserve in Tama county, Iowa, three 
hundred and fifty-five, and under the care of the 
great Nemaha agency sixty-three, making a total 
of nine hundred and eighty. How rapidly they are 
wasting away ! 

The Pottawattamies were the last of the red men 
that lived in Fremont county. This tribe, never 
very powerful or very prominent among the Amer- 
ican aborigines, is yet mentioned by the French 
as gathering from the unexplored recesses of Lake 
Michigan to learn of Christianity from the Jesuit 
missionaries early in the seventeenth century 
(1665-7). Marquette speaks of them at Fox 
river, Wisconsin, in 1673. Tonti found refuge 
among them on Lake Michigan in 1680. When, 
in 1712, the Foxes attempted the capture of the 
French post at Detroit, the Pottawattamies, with 
Ottawas and Hurons, were in alliance with the 
French. They, with the Ojibways and Ottawas, 
formed a confederacy, of which Pontiac was the 
virtual head. They entered warmly into the In- 



Rev. John Todd 197 

dian conspiracy against the English in 1763, and 
took an active part in the siege of Detroit in the 
summer of that year. We find them leagued with 
the Kickapoos and Miamis against the Illinois in 
1768. As the wave of emigration rolled west- 
ward, the Pottawattamies with other small tribes 
were borne on its crest. They probably came into 
Iowa with their former allies, the Sacs and Foxes. 
We find them with this tribe and others parties to 
a treaty formed August 19, 1825, by which the 
United States was to establish a boundary line 
between the Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux. 

The Pottawattamies were still in Fremont county 
when the first white settlers came. Shattee, a ven- 
erable, hoar}'-headed chief, with his band of one 
hundred and fifty or more, had a village in a hol- 
low southwest of Lacy's, and about due west from 
Sidney. W^abonsa's band lived on Wabonsie creek, 
in Mills county. Government block houses had 
been erected on the high ground near the descent 
of the bluffs southeast of James Lambert's resi- 
dence on the northwest quarter of the southeast 
quarter of section fourteen, township seventy-one, 
range forty-three, but were moved at some time 
prior to 1847 to section twenty-four, township sev- 
enty-one, range forty-three, near the residence ot 
John Lambert. The house of Wabonsa, the chief, 
was bought by a Mr. Cumings. A rude coffin of 
rough boards rested on the limbs of a tree just 



198 Reminiscences 

across the creek from this log house for a num- 
ber of years after the whites had taken possession. 
It was fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, was 
said to contain an Indian corpse and thus showed 
the Indian method of disposing of the dead. The 
treaty by which the Indians were removed was 
made in the spring of 1847, ^^^ permitted them 
to remain a year, but some of them went to Kan- 
sas in the autumn of the same year and some went 
to the three river country, the forks of the Des 
Moines, to winter. 

About 1876, one thousand four hundred of this 
tribe became citizens in Kansas and received their 
land in fee. In 1880 there were four hundred and 
thirty on a reservation in Kansas and three hun- 
dred in the Indian Territory. They are reported 
to be very desirous to have their children educated 
and adopt civilized manners. Unless they can be 
Christianized and civihzed they must perish as 
a race. 

[finis.] 



INDEX 



Abolitionist, 56, 109, 150. 

Adams. Dea. S. H., 41, 53, 83, 
85, 94, 96, 135, 146. 

Albany, N. T., 132, 133. 

Amity, see College Springs. 

American Board of Commls- 
soners for Foreign Mis- 

, sions, 16, 26. 

American Home Missionary 
Society, 57, 95. 

American Missionary Soci- 
ety, 26. 

American Settlement Com- 
pany, 110. 

Anti-slavery Discussion, 55. 

Argyle, Fred, 97. 

Argyle's Ferry, 93. 

Atchison, Senator David R., 
110. 

Atchison, Kan., 137. 

Atkins, Judge Q. P., 15, 80. 
103. 

Atkinson. B. F., 170. 

Avery, Egbert, 104, 141, 146, 
147. 

Baker, Hon. Mr., 77. 
Balcom, Elder, 177. 
Baptists, 63, 177. 
Barbour, Mrs. J. M., 41. 

Barnes, , 89. 

Battles, Kansas. 118, 119, 125, 

128. Indian, 185, 187, 188, 190, 

191, 192, 194, 195, 197. 
Beacon, The Tabor, 5. 
Bell, Rev. Father, 168. 

Bell, , IM. 

Bellevlew, Neb., 65, 89. 

Belvidere, 167. 

Big Grove, 96. 

Black Hawk, 1^, 194. Ally 

of English, 195. 
Black Hawk Purchase, 195. 
Black Hawk "War, 195. 
Black Jack, Kan., (fight) 118. 
Blanchard, Dr. Ira D., 63, 91, 

95, 139, 152, 153. 
Blue Lodges, 110. 
Bodwell, Rev., 116. 
Branson, Mr., 113. 
Branscomb, Cbas., 111. 
Briggs, Clark, 146. 
Briggs, Dea. Daniel, 138, 145. 



Brooks, Pres. Wm. M., 28, 
107, 148, 154. 

Brown, Jason, 118. 

Brown, Capt. John, 24, 114, 
118, 119, 120, 129, 130, 133. Tar- 
get practice, 154. Raid into 
Mo. Public, 158, thanksgiv- 
ing, 159, grieved, 160, last 
visit to Tabor, 161. 

Brown, John, Jr., 118. 

Brown, Owen, 154, 156. 

Buchler, Mr., 97. 

Burlington, 78, 106. 

Bush, Dea., 175. 

Butler's Mills, 163. 

Butte des Morts, 192. 

Byrd, Rev. Jno. H., 137. 



Cahokia, 111., 187. 
Calhoun, Neb., 167. 
California City, 89, 168. 
Carver, Capt. Jonathan, 183, 

193. 
Case, Cephas, 135. 
Cassell. Mr., 147. 
Cedar Creek, Neb., 168. 
Chambersburg, Pa., 157. 
Chambry, Capt., 122, 125. 
Cherokee, 164. 
Chicago, 111., 82. 
Cholera, 91. 
Church, 83. 

Church Services, 97, 103, 126. 
Church, Tabor, organized, 97. 
Cincinnati, O., 54. 
Civil Bend, 66, 96, 98. 
Clark, Mr., 89. 
Clark, Jas., 125. 
Clark, Mortimer P., 104, 119. 
Clark, 'Orson B., 104. 
Clark, Win. L., 103, 135. 
Clarksfield, O., 15, 24, 52, 62, 

80, 105, 130. 
Cleveland, C, 82, 131. 
Coleman, Mr., 113. 
College Springs, 169. 
Columbian Exposition, 36. 
Congregationalists, 13, 162, 

164, 166, 167, 168, 175. 
Congressional Committee, 109. 
Constitutional Convention,' 

112, (Free States), 113. 



200 



Index 



Conversions, Remarkable, 

171, 175. 
Cook, Capt., 156. 
Council Bluffs, 27, 74, 83, 107, 

138, 176. 
Council Bluffs Association, 

138 
Cowan, Rev. Jno. W., 31, 34, 

37. 
Cramer, Squire, 144, 146. 
Crescent City, 163. 
Cross, Rev. Jno.. 170. 
Gumming City, Neb., 167. 
Cummings, Miss Abbie. 98. 
Cummings, Rev. OVigin, 98, 

99, 140, 148. 
Cutler's Camp, 90, 96. 
Cutter, Dr., 116. 

Dakota City, Neb., 166. 
Dalrymple, Dr. 66, 67. 
Decatur, Neb., 167. » 

De Forest, Rev. H. S., 176. 
De Louvigny, 192. 
Denison, 169. 
De Soto, Neb., 167. 
Des Moines River, 77, 186. 
Dickey, Col., 116. 
Discussion on Slavery, 55. 
Dow, Mr., 113. 
Doyles, the, 115. 
Drakola, S. D., 115. 
Dunlap, 164. 

Eddyville, 77. 

Eight Mile Grove, Neb., 168. 
Eldridge, Col., 118, 130, 132. 
Emigrant Aid Society, 110. 
Europeans, First, in Iowa, 

186. 
Evangelistic Work, 174. 
Exira, 175. 

Fairchild, Prof. Jas. T., 30, 

41. 
Fairfield, 77. 
Family meeting. 80. 
Farmer, Squire Thos., 93. 
Florence, 89. 
Florence, Neb., 163. 
Fort St. Louis, 187. 
Fort Titus, 125. 
Forbes, Col., 154, 156. 
Ford, Lawyer, 94. 
Foster, Joe, 145, 146. 148. 
Foster, Rev. Richard B., 117, 

125. 
Fourth of July celebration, 

84, 94, 133. 
Fox River, Wis., 191, 192. 
Franklin, Kan., 129. 



Free State Constitutional 

Convention, 113. 
BYee State men. 111, 114. 158. 
Free State Organizations, 110. 
Free State Stores, 155. 
French, Claudius B., 78. 
Fugitive slaves, from Tabor, 

134. Atchison, Kan., 137. 

Nebraska City, 138. Indian 

Territory, 147, rescued, 147. 

From Linden, Mo., 150. 

Galesburg, 111., 78, 169. 

Gardner, Ben F., 106, 170. 

Gardner, Jim, 147. 

Garner, Mr., 90. Henry & 
Mana, 152, 153. 

Gaston, (P. a.) 19— Civil 
Bend. 

Gaston, Dea. Alexander C, 
41, 61, 147. 

Gaston, Dea. Geo. B., plans 
colony, 52; selects John 
Todd, 16; goes to Iowa, 53, 
55, 60; at Civil Bend, 65, 83, 
85, 91; changes to Tabor, 94, 
96, 103; chosen captain, 119; 
plans "underground rail- 
road," 135, 148, 152; home 
headquarters in Kansas 
times, 121, 161. 

Gaston, Mrs. G. B., quoted, 
121. 

Gaston, Jas. K., 98, 125, 135. 

Gates, Wm. J., 98, 100. 

Gaylord, Rev. R. E., 162. 

Geary, Gov., 127. 

Glenwood, 22, 90, 145, 159, 162, 
175. 

Goodrich, , 164. 

Granville, 111., 82. 

Grave, The First, 100. 

Great Nemaha Reservation, 
185. 

Green-head flies, 165, 167. 

Hall, Dea. Josiah B., 53, 60, 

65, 67, 74, 80. 
Hallam, John, 98, 135, 148. 
Hanley, Dr. R. R., 21. 
Hargen. Mr., 116. 
Harrison, Mrs. Margaret, 53. 
Harrison City, 163. 
Harper's Ferry, Va., 157. 
Harvey. Col., 128. 
Haskins, Rev. B. F., 169, 170. 
Hennepin, 111., 82. 
Hickory Point, Kan., 113, 

(fight), 128. 
Higginson, Col. T. W., 116. 
' High Creek, 90, 94. 



Index 



20 1 



Hill, Edgar S., 119. 
Hill, Rev. Edwin S., 145, 146. 
Hill, Dea. Julius M., 25, 41. 
Hill, Dea. L. B., 106, 148, 149. 
Hlnton, Mrs. Cordelia C, 180. 
Hitchcock, Rev. Geo. B., 123, 

138, 175. 
Hitchcock, Leang Afa., 123. 
Hollister, Isaac. 106, 125. 
Honey Creek, 89. 
Horse stealing, 69, 74. 
House building, 85, first in 

Tabor, 97. 
House, Rev. A. V., 171. 
Howe, Dr. S. G., 115. 

Hubbard, , 104. 

Hume, Loren, 103. 
Hunter, Geo., 145, 146, 147. 
Hunter, Jno. L., 104, 107. 

Hurd, , 152. 

Hurlbutt, Robt. H., 106, 119. 

Ida Gfove, 164. 
Illinois River, 82, 186. 

Indians: Algonkians, 182; Da- 

kotas. 182; Foxes, 183, 185, 

186, 190, 191, 192, 193, 197; 
Hurons, 196; Illinois, 183, 
185, 187, 194; lowas, 183, 184, 
185, 186, 194; Iroquois, 182, 

187, 190; Kickapoos, 190. 197; 
Miamis, 186, 190, 197; Mob- 
ilian, 182; Ojibways, 183, 
185, 192, 196; Osages, 186; Ot- 
toganmies-Poxes; O'ttowas, 
1%; Pawnees, 179, 183; Pot- 
tawattamies, 189, 190, 196, 
198; Sacs, 183, 184, 185, 186, 
190, 191; Sioux, 183, 186, 197; 
Shawnees, 186; Winneba- 
goes, 183; Origin of, 182. 

Indian battles, 185, 187, 188, 
190 191, 192, 194, 195, 197. 

Indian Creek, 68. 

Indiantown. 68. 

Indian trails, 180. 

Ingraham, Harvey D., 106, 
125. 

Iowa River, 185, 193. 

lowaville, 185. 

Irish Henry, 135. 

Jefferson River, 193, 194. 
Jesuit Missionaries, 196. 
Jones, Jonas, 103, 104, 107, 154, 

161. 
Joliet, 186. 

Kagi, J. H., 158. 
Kansas, 24, 108, 153, 156. 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 111. 



Kanesville (Council Bluffs), 

27, 65, 74. 
Kempton, Mrs. Julia, 100. 
Kenosha, Neb., 168. 
Kidnapping case, 152. 
King, Rev. H. D., 163, 175, 176. 
Knox College, 111., 169. 

Ladd, B. F., 106, 139. 

Lacy's, 197. 

Laird, Mr., 174. 

Laird, F. M., 174. 

Lambert, Jas., 197; Jno., 197; 

Squire, 91. 
Lambert's Landing, 83. 
Lane, Gen. Jas. H., 114, 116, 

118, 119. 122, 125, 127, 128, 131, 

132. 
Lang, Rev.. 177. 
La Salle, 186, 187. 
Latter Day Saints, see Mor- 
mons. 
Lawrence, Kan., Ill, 114, 117, 

127, 128, (flght) 129, (sacked) 

118. 
Lawrence, Chas. F., 106, 146, 

147. 
Leaman, "Wm., 156. 
Leeka's Mill, 102. 
Legislature, "Bogus," 112, 

Free State, 112, 119. 
Lewis, 123, 137, 138, 149, 175. 
Liberty, 157. 
Linden, Mo., 90, 92, 94, 150. 
Linville, Geo., 145, 147. 
Lyman, Isaac C, 106. 
Lyons, Mr., 90. 

McKinney, Rev., 65. 
McKissacks Grove, 93. 
McMillen, 146. 
Madison, Wm., 103. 
Magnolia, 176. ^ 

Mails, 53, 101. 
Mapleton, 164. 
Martin, Mrs. Cordelia Clark, 

180. 
Marquette, Pere, 186. 
Marysville, Mo., 172. 
Mason, Pascal, 145, 147, 148. 
Matthews, Darius P., 53, 61, 

103; Mrs., 82. 
Matehews, L. Ashmun, 104, 

130. 
Matthews, Lucius T., 104. 
Maumee Swamp, 79. 
Maxwell, Rev., 168. 
Meeting, Antislavery, 108 

foot note. 
Meeting, Mass, 64, 77. 
Meeting, Prayer, 55, 98. 



202 



Index 



Meeting, Protracted, 96, 174, 

175. 
Meeting, Temperance, 98. 
Methodist, 27, 63, 95, 96, 171, 

174. 
Michigan City, 82. 
Military company, 119, 141. 
Mills, Oliver, 149. 
Missionary Societies, 26. 
Missionary "Work, 26. 
Mississippi River, 78, 190, 198, 

195. 
Missouri, 158. 
Missourians, 109, 112, 120, 129, 

158. 
Missouri River, 59, 64, 75, 91, 

142, 179, 190, 195. 
Moffit, Chas., 156. 
Monmouth, 111., 78. 
Morehead, 164. 
Morley. Rev. J. H., 176. 
Mormon doctrine, 163. 
Mormon elder, 70, 74, 135. 
Mormon sermons, 73. 
Mormon trail, 65, 67, 75, 77. 
Mormons, 27, 67, 70, 71, 78, 163. 
Montrose, 193. 
Mosquitos, 86, 94. 
Mount Pleasant, 78. 
Mud Creek, 144. 
Munsinger, Jos., 98. 

Nauvoo, 111., 67. 
Nebraska, slaves in, 138. 
Nebraska City, 115, 138, 141, 

168. 
Nemaha, Neb.. 127. 
Nettleton, Prof. L. J., 41. 
New Mexico, 184. 
Nishnabotna River, 90, 93, 

135, 136, 140, 147; Bast, 68. 
Nuckolls, Mr., 138, 141, 142. 
Nutting, Rev. J. K., 22. 

Oberlin, O'., 14, 15, 16, 62, 79, 

88, 102, 109, 137. 
Ohio River, 186. 
Old Queen (mare), 101, 102. 
Olmsted, 164; Mr. Henry, 164. 
Omadi, Neo., 166. 
O'maha, Neb., 162. 
0*maha reservation, 167. 
Osceola, 107. 
Ossawattamie, Kan., sacked, 

119. 

Parker, Rev. (Father) OYson, 

177. 
Parker, Rev. Lucius H., 78. 
Parkman, Francis, 188. 
Parsons, Rev., 116, 126, 126. 
Parsons. L. F., 156. 



Pate, Capt. H. Clay, 118, 119. 
Patriotic Volunteer, The 

(book), 155. 
Pawnee Indians, 16, 179, 183. 
Pearse, Sherman R., 98; 

Marcus C, 107. 
Penfield, Rev. H., 159, 176. 
Percival, 17, 66, 141, 152, 174, 

176. 
Pike, Lieut. Z. M., 193. 
Pisgah, 70. 
Piatt, Mrs. Elvira C, 16, 84, 

90; Lester W., 16, 62, 100; 

Enoch, Everett and Luth- 
er, 120, 125. 
Platte River, 89. 
Plattsmouth, Neb., 168. 
Pomeroy, Hon. S. C, 111, 116. 
Pontiac, death, 187; life, 188; 

conspiracy of, ISS, 196. 
Postage, 53. 

Prairie du CHiien, Wis., 193. 
Prayer. Concert of, 24, 98, see 

meeting. 
Preparation, 163. 
Presbyterian Mission, 65. 
Presbyterians, 13, 162, 168; 

United, 173. 
Puncheon floor, 88. 

Quincy, 137, 159. 

Race, Prejudice, 157. 
Realf, Col. Richard, 156, 157. 
Rector, Father, 64, 142. 
Redpath, Mr. Jas., 128. 
Reed, Pestus, 168. 
Reeder, Gov., 109, 111, 112, 115. 
Reeves. Reuben, 37. 
Republican organization, 

first, 117. 
Reminiscences, origin of, 6, 

51; when written, E. 
Rhode, John, 121. 
Rice, Rev. G. G., 21, 40, 95, 97. 
Robinson, Dr. Chas. (G'ov.), 

Ill, 114, 115, 118. 
Robertson, Richard, 156. 
Rock Bluff, Neb., 168. 
Rock River, Wis., 186. 

Sabbath observance, 57, 60, 

71, 78, 82. 170. 
St. Joseph, Mo., 54, 58, 60, 

107, 131, 152. 
St. Lawrence River, 190. 
St. Louis, Mo., 54, 56, 58, 83, 

152 193 
Salt' Lake, Utah, 67. 
Samson, Mr., 145. 
Sanborn, Dr. J. F., 146. 



Index 



203 



Sargent's BlufE, 165, 167. 

School, 83, 90, 97; first in Ross 
township, 97; first Tabor, 
105; house, 105; house burn- 
ed, 91. 

Searles, Maj., 118. 

Seward, Sec. Wm. H., 108. 

Sharps' rifle, 117, 126, 129, 132, 
154, 157. 

Shattee, Chief, 197. 

Shannon, Cov. Wilson, 112, 
114, 117. 

Sheldon, Capt. Edward T., 
144, 145, 147. 

Shepherdson, "Wm. R., 104. 

Sidney, 90, 94, 133, 168. 

Silver City, 90. 

Silver Creek, 66, 90, 135, 140, 
144. 

Simpson, Rev. Wm., 95, 96, 
174. 

Sioux City, 166, 167, 172. 

Sitting Bull, Chief, 183. 

Smith. Dea. Jno. W., 80. 

Smith, Jas. L., 102, 105, 124, 
128. 146. 147. 

Smithland, 164, 167. 

Spees, Marcus T'., 104. 

Spotted Tail. Chief, 183. 

S'pringdale, 157. 

Starrett, Henry M., 97, 103. 

Starved Rock, 187, 190. 

Steamboat travel, 58. 

Steam Mill, 87, 90. 

Stephens, A. D., 156, 157. 

Stringfellow, Gen., 109. 

Stutsman's Mill, 89. 

Slinday school, 84, 97. 

Tabor, 18, 51, 96, 107, 115. 
Tecumseh, Chief. 1^. 
Tekama, Neb., 167. 
Temperance work, 98, 177. 
Thayer, Wm., 104. 
Three River country, 66, 74, 

75, 198. 
Thurman, 142. 
Tidd, C. P., 156. 
Tipton, 105. 
Titus. Col.. 126. 
Todd. Mrs. Annie D., 35. 
Todd, David, 14, 106. 
Todd, Mrs. Martha A., 15, 35. 

97. 
Todd, Capt. Jas., 13. 
Todd, Rev. Joihn, Ancestry, 

13; Antislavery work, 24; 

Chaplaincy, 25; College 

work, 28; Closing years, 35; 



Death, 37, 38; Funeral, 39; 
Memorial, 41; Ministry, 19; 
Missionary work, 26; Per- 
sonal characteristics, 30; 
Pioneer life, 17, 85; Preach- 
ing, 19, 23; Synopsis of, life, 
45; Temperance work, 28, 
84. 98; War record, 25. 

ToUes, C. W., 135. 

Tonti, 186, 187. 

Topeka, Kan., 112, 127. 

T'ownshend, ^saac, 103. 

Tozier, , 168. 

Trader's Point, 65, 89. 

Underground railroad, 24; 

opened, 134; Activity, 150. 
United Presbyterian, 173. 
U. S. Government, 113, 120, 

194. 
U. S. Marshal, 113, 114, 117. 
U. S. Troops, 113, 118, 119, 

128, 171. 
Utica, 111., Ia6. 

Valparaiso. Ind., 78. 
Vincent, Rev. Jas., 145. 

Wabonsa, Chief, 64; his 

house, 197; his grave, 198. 
Wabonsie, (region), 145, 148. 
Wabonsie creek. 64. 197. 
Walnut creek. 149. 
Walton, Miss Abbie, 63. 101. 
Washington, D. C. 81. 
Webb, L. E.. 103, 106, 148. 
Webster, Mrs. Ruth, 103. 
Wellington, 164. 
West, Jesse, 9S, 107, 134, 148. 
West, John, 104. 
Westport, Mo., 118. 
Wheatland, Mich., 78. 
Wlhite, Bela, 168. 
WTiite Breast creek, 76. 
White Cloud. 116, 140, 147. 
Whitfield, Gen., 112. 
Williams, Reuben, 141, 142. 
Williams, Hon. Sturgis, 142. 
Williamson, John, 139, 151. 
Wilson, Mr., 76. 
Winnebago Lake, Wis., 183. 

Wing, , 146. 

Wood, Wm. J., 169, 170. 
Woodford, Newton, 144, 145. 
Woods, Dea. Daniel E., 148. 
Wright, Squire, 102. 
Wyatt, Squire, 147. 

York, Elder, 70. 74. 



4 



:-Y2a»0r) 



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